Hi °C | Lo °C Chris Robshaw remains favourite to captain next summer's Lions after Sam Warburton was left out of the Welsh side to face Italy on Saturday week.
However, Lions coach Warren Gatland has admitted that he is worried about swamping his party with English players after their well-publicised problems during the last World Cup.
"If they do well in the Six Nations, there will be a reasonable contingent of English players," admitted Gatland, who was in Dublin last weekend to watch Stuart Lancaster's Grand Slam hopefuls defeat Ireland 12-6.
"But that brings a certain element of – how do I say it – other pressures that come with selecting a lot of English players.
"It becomes a much greater media focus from the English papers; potentially a negative focus from the Australian papers. And English players are targeted by other countries. They are not always the most popular because of the history. People like having a pop at them."
England have cast aside much of the poor image that existed under Martin Johnson, but Gatland appreciates the difficulties of top-loading a squad with English players – especially in Australia.
"We all know what happened with England at the World Cup and the circus that was created," said Gatland.
