Warburton insists fans will see running rugby on tour

Captain Sam Warburton has insisted that the British & Irish Lions have the talent and depth in their backline to match Australia out wide this summer and will not play "10-man rugby".

Warburton brushed aside suggestions in Australian media that the Lions would play to their traditional strengths, the forwards, and said fans, including those in Hong Kong on June 1 for the tour's opening game against the Barbarians, would be in for a treat of running rugby.

"We definitely want to play attractive rugby. I don't want to play 10-man rugby and we will be using the wide channels as much as possible," Warburton told the South China Morning Post yesterday.

A provocative headline in The Sydney Morning Herald on the selection of the 37-man squad read: "No surprises as Gatland opts for slab of red meat."

Lions and Wales coach Warren Gatland on Tuesday named a Welsh-heavy 37-man squad for the tour, skippered by Wales flanker Warburton.

But Warburton insisted that the class of 2013 would not be all about power. "Of course, we will be physical. That is always the case and our intentions are to raise the physicality of our approach. But no way are we just going to be playing a power game. It won't be 10-man rugby."

Yesterday, Australia coach Robbie Deans seemed to agree with the prevailing mood in his homeland, warning of a brutal series he called "the ultimate rugby experience". He said Six Nations champions Wales deserved their dominant presence, with 15 players heading to Australia compared with 10 from England, nine from Ireland and just three Scots.

"I don't think there were too many surprises. They've gone back to what they know, which isn't surprising," Deans said.

"You go back two years when the Welsh [first] picked up the [Six Nations] title, everyone anticipated that the nucleus of the team would be Welsh.

"Then they hit a little bit of a flat patch, but came back and responded very well in the last outing and retained the title," he added, referring to Wales' 32-3 rout of England in this year's Six Nations decider.

"Particularly given the nature of that performance, it was complete, so it's not surprising that Warren has looked very much to his own."

With the Lions squad full of big forwards and big backs, Deans said he was preparing for a physical encounter.

"The best insight of what this series is going to be like was that final Six Nations fixture. It was brutal and it was relentless for 80 minutes," he said. "It will be a contest that our blokes have never experienced … This is the ultimate rugby experience."

Australia are due to name their squad on May 19. The Lions play the first of three tests against the Wallabies on June 22.