Poll Reaction: Gatland will choose Warburton as captain for Lions tour

British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland is set to make Sam Warburton captain for the second successive tour, as the test side head to New Zealand next year.

That’s the view of Twitter, with a whopping 54 per cent of voters in today’s Ladbrokes poll expecting the coach to stick with the Cardiff Blues man, who is the 6/4 favourite for the armband.

Warburton led the Lions in the 2013 tour of Australia, as the visitors grabbed their first Test series win since defeating South Africa in 1997.

However, a sizeable number of you still think the coach might look elsewhere, with Northampton Saints hooker Dylan Hartley your second-favourite with 18 per cent, and his 75 caps for England certainly make him a reasonable shout.

Who will Warren Gatland select as his captain?

— Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) September 7, 2016

And narrowly behind in third, 17 per cent are expecting Warburton’s experienced Wales teammate Alun Wyn Jones to get the nod for this tour, having featured heavily in both of the last two – and at 11/4 that pedigree could make him a popular choice with punters.

Finally, bringing up the rear was ‘Other’ with an 11 per cent slice of the pie, suggesting that Gatland’s list of contenders is unlikely to have more than three names on it.

It’s 4/1 for the Lions to win the series in New Zealand, while the most optimistic fans on these shores can back Gatland’s men to win the series 3-0 at odds of 25/1.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing