Lions mix and match for Maori

Peter O'Mahony will captain the British & Irish Lions against the New Zealand Maori in Rotorua on Saturday. 

The Irish flanker is the Lions' fourth captain in five matches on tour.

There are 11 players who started in the 12-3 win over the Crusaders last weekend. Interestingly, though, tour captain Sam Warburton is on the bench, while Alun Wyn Jones has not been included in the match 23. Owen Farrell was orginally named on the bench, but had to withdraw because of injury.

'There's a little bit of juggling going on at the moment, a bit of mixing and matching,' said coach Warren Gatland. 'We've got some players who have played quite a bit and we wanted to also have a look at a couple of other combinations.

'Even though it's a strong side, we've got to make sure we're not fully showing our hand. We're keeping some combinations back and we need to keep the All Blacks guessing a bit about what the final squad is going to be.'

British & Irish Lions – 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Ben Te'o, 11 George North, 10 Johnny Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Peter O'Mahony (c), 5 George Kruis, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Jamie George, 1 Mako Vunipola.
Subs: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 Sam Warburton, 21 Greig Laidlaw, 22 Dan Biggar, 23 Elliot Daly.

New Zealand Maori team

Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Getty Images

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