Jac Morgan in the Sam Warburton mould as leader, says Warren Gatland

Warren Gatland has likened Jac Morgan to Sam Warburton as the open-side flanker prepares to lead out Wales for the first time, 12 years on from Warburton’s late rise to become World Cup captain.

Similarities between Gatland’s first and fourth World Cups as Wales head coach have been a common thread of late. At the 2011 tournament, Wales turned a fourth-place finish in the Six Nations into a World Cup semi-final, with Warburton making his captaincy bow three months before the tournament began, aged 22. A new generation of youngsters — Warburton, George North, Taulupe Faletau, Leigh Halfpenny, Jonathan Davies, Dan Lydiate — became the spine of the team.

Gatland, who returned as head coach in December, has backed written-off Wales to surprise everybody at