Alun Wyn ready to wear captain's armband at last

The British Lion has finalised his preparation for the new season following a delayed pre-season after his involvement in Wales' summer internationals, and will pull on the captain's armband for the first time in Limerick this weekend.

Speaking ahead of the game, he said that he was pleased to finally be able to lead the Ospreys into action.

"It's been a funny start really, with JC captaining the team over the first couple of games"

he said.

"He's done a great job as he always does, but now I'm finally going to get the chance to do the job for real and see how it goes. I'm feeling really good physically but it's important to get the rugby rustiness out of my system as quickly as possible.

"It's going to be a tough test, it always is when you are playing Munster at home or away, and it will be a good places for me to get started. It's a bit of a baptism of fire in terms of my captaincy isn't it?"

Jones has promised that he will utilise the experience within the squad as he learns the captaincy ropes, and he says that his colleagues will now what to expect from him in the role:

"I said when I was first appointed as captain that I wasn't going to change how I do things. I always try to remain consistent in my approach to things week to week and I don't see any reason to change that. It's important that everybody else here knows that, the already know how I work, how I think about rugby, and it's important that doesn't change.

"We've got plenty of players in the squad who are leaders, who can drive standards here, and there's plenty of experience in the squad to use as a captain to help get the team going forward.

"I think that's what I've got to do, those experienced players can take the reins in certain areas but it's down to me to help co-ordinate them, take advice where necessary and to make the right decisions on the field."

With Munster first up for Captain Jones, it promises to be a difficult test for the second row, but he says that the squad will be up for the challenge:

"We won out there at Thomond for the first time last year so we've set the standard and we'll obviously want to hit a similar performance this around. We respect Munster as opposition, it's a great place to go and play rugby at any time, particularly when I'm taking the reins for the first time.

"Last season's game is confined to the history book now, this is a different season and a different game so we can't look at how we did then, we have to be focused on this one completely or we will fall short.

"It's just another game for me, I don't feel that I'm under the spotlight at all. I'll go into it with more responsibility obviously but my usual approach is to play to win and to do the right thing for the jersey and that won't change at all."