Have four Lions captains, says England coach Jones

LONDON, March 21 (Reuters) - England coach Eddie Jones has a novel solution to the question of who should captain the British and Irish Lions on the tour of world champions New Zealand this year -- make it a four-man job.

Several names are in the frame to be given the leading role by Lions coach Warren Gatland, including England skipper Dylan Hartley and Ireland's fellow hooker Rory Best, Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones and Scotland's scrumhalf Greig Laidlaw.

Yet Jones, whose England side suffered their first loss in his 18 matches in charge against Ireland on Saturday, said that such was the enormity of the 10-match tour, which features three tests, that a new approach should be tried.

"I know what I would do. I would take the captains of the four nations, pool them together and make that the leadership group," Australian Jones said at a team-building seminar at the Advertising Week Europe event in London on Tuesday.

"The Lions is such a prestigious tour. I would have those four guys lead the team and after the first five (warm-up) games I would pick the first test and whoever was the leading player of those four I would make the captain for the first test."

The Lions face a brutal schedule with matches against Super Rugby heavyweights Blues, Crusaders and Highlanders.

"I would have a tour leadership group and a specific captain for each test," Jones said. "You look at the last Lions tour and Sam Warburton captained the first two and Alan Wyn Jones captained the third so I think you can separate it.

"It would be different but I would reckon you would get a great result with those four captains running the team for you and making sure they set the standards on and off the field."

While the focus switches to the Lions tour in the summer, Jones admitted he was already missing the daily contact with his England players after they fell one short of setting a new world record 19-match winning streak and a second successive Six Nations Grand Slam when going down 13-9 to Ireland in Dublin.

He admitted he was "racing the clock" as he tried to build the necessary "on-pitch" leadership to win the World Cup in Japan in 2019, saying that England still fell short.

"For whatever reason we didn't respond to the pressure of the situation on Saturday," Jones said. "A number of players struggled and they'll learn so much from that.

"We don't have the density right now to win a World Cup. I think you need about nine players who are absolutely self-reliant, who don't need to be told what to do.

"We have maybe five, but you need nine because then you have a tipping point where if you don't join the strength of the team you get left out. We don't quite have and it will take time to develop." (Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ian Chadband)