Sam Warburton will captain the British and Irish Lions on their 10-match tour of New Zealand, leading a 41-man squad that contains only two Scottish players and does not include England forwards Dylan Hartley and Joe Launchbury.
Warburton - the skipper for the 2013 tour of Australia - will be the second player to captain the Lions twice, after England great Martin Johnson (1997, 2001).
"He did a great job for us in 2013," Lions coach Warren Gatland said Wednesday of the Wales flanker, "so for us it was a natural choice."
Sixteen England players were selected in an enlarged touring party but New Zealand-born Hartley wasn't among them, despite recently leading his adopted country to a record-equalling run of 18 wins in tier-one test matches.
Jamie George - Hartley's understudy with England - was preferred as one of three hookers along with Ken Owens and Rory Best.
Launchbury was one of England's best players in the Six Nations title triumph over February and March but three compatriots - Courtney Lawes, George Kruis and Maro Itoje - were picked ahead of him.
The squad is heavy on power in both the forwards and at centre, a sign of how gruelling Gatland and his coaching staff believe the tour will be.
Three surprises were Wales No.8 Ross Moriarty, Ireland centre Jared Payne and ex-NRL star Ben Te'o, while England prop Kyle Sinckler got the call even though all of his eight test appearances have come off the bench.
There were 12 players from Wales - a country coached by Gatland - 11 from Ireland and two from Scotland, which will be one of the big talking points of the selections.
Scotland won three games in the Six Nations and finished third, their best performance in the northern hemisphere tournament since 2006, but only fullback Stuart Hogg and winger Tommy Seymour were called up by the Lions.
In the 2013 tour, nine players were summoned as injury cover so all is not lost for those who missed out on what is regarded as the toughest assignment in world rugby: Earning a series win in New Zealand.
The Lions have won just one series in 11 trips to New Zealand, 2-1 in 1971, and were demolished 3-0 on their last visit in 2005 by a rampant All Blacks side led by Dan Carter. New Zealand, the current world champion and top-ranked team, haven't lost a three-Test series since 1994.
"We are very happy with the quality we have in the squad," said Gatland, who has been involved in the selection process for the past three Lions squads. "Probably the hardest one we've had. But looking back, we think it's the strongest squad."
The tour begins on June 3 and culminates in a three-test series against the All Blacks.
Squad: Dan Biggar (Wales), Elliot Daly (England), Jonathan Davies (Wales), Owen Farrell (England), Leigh Halfpenny (Wales), Robbie Henshaw (Ireland), Stuart Hogg (Scotland), Jonathan Joseph (England), Conor Murray (Ireland), George North (Wales), Jack Nowell (England), Jared Payne (Ireland), Jonathan Sexton (Ireland), Tommy Seymour (Scotland), Ben T'eo (England), Anthony Watson (England), Rhys Webb (Wales), Liam Williams (Wales), Ben Youngs (England), Rory Best (Ireland), Dan Cole (England), Taulupe Faletau (Wales), Tadhg Furlong (Ireland), Jamie George (England), Iain Henderson (Ireland), Maro Itoje (England), Alun Wyn Jones (Wales), George Kruis (England), Courtney Lawes (England), Joe Marler (England), Jack McGrath (Ireland), Ross Moriarty (Wales), Sean O'Brien (Ireland), Peter O'Mahony (Ireland), Ken Owens (Wales), Kyle Sinckler (England), CJ Stander (Ireland), Justin Tipuric (Wales), Mako Vunipola (England), Billy Vunipola (England), Sam Warburton (Wales, capt).
