Warren Gatland wants Lions captain Sam Warburton to sit out Cardiff Blues’ upcoming European Champions Cup play-off.
Warburton, named skipper last month for the tour of New Zealand, has been out since damaging knee ligaments in early April.
And Gatland wants to keep the Wales flanker in the Lions training camp rather than allow him to turn out for the Blues against Stade Francais on Friday.
Victory in that game would mean a play-off final against Northampton or Connacht a week later, just three days before the Lions squad departs.
Gatland said: “It would be ideal for us if he didn’t play for the Blues. Sam thinks he is okay at the moment. The plan is that he will stay with us and do some hard conditioning work with contact as well.”
The suggestion that Warburton should be overlooked by the Blues is a change of stance by Gatland.
When the Lions squad was named, the Lions head coach stressed that his skipper was nearing fitness and was on schedule to make a return in Blues colours before the end of the Guinness Pro12 season.
Blues coach Danny Wilson also suggested that the former Wales captain would be ready should the region reach the Champions Cup play-offs.
But now it appears the Blues will be expected to go along with the Lions’ request that Warburton – the first Wales player to go on to a dual contract – be kept out of the firing line.
A Provisional Union XV provide the first opposition of the tour on June 3 and Gatland will warn his players to expect a fight.
“The opposition teams will relish a Lions scalp and my challenge is to communicate that to the squad,” he said.
“In the past, it was provincial teams, not Super Rugby sides, and they will see it as a chance to make a name for themselves, do something special, create a bit of history.”
