Mortlock honoured by captaincy

Stirling Mortlock has labelled the opportunity to lead the Wallabies into the World Cup 'a massive honour'.

Mortlock, who first captained the Wallabies against England in 2006, impressed Wallabies' management with his strong on-field leadership throughout the recent domestic Test campaign.

The 30-year-old admitted aspiring to lead the Wallabies but was humbled by his appointment when notified by Wallabies coach John Connolly on Monday morning.

"Since the day I was captain of the Brumbies I always hoped that maybe I'd get the opportunity to captain Australia (and) I've been lucky to have done that," Mortlock said.

"This is a massive honour and a huge buzz personally to be named captain of the Wallabies for the World Cup campaign."

But the newly appointed skipper expects leading his team into the World Cup to provide it's own challenges.

"There is a somewhat different feeling; I guess a World Cup being such a unique situation and a massive build-up of pressure and intensity that goes within a World Cup, there's a lot more things to take into consideration," Mortlock said.

"You've got to make sure you stay focused on each individual game and take it as it is, but you've still got an ultimate aim and ultimate goal in the short term to focus on as well."

But Mortlock won't be alone on the leadership front with 13 players within the squad having had previous World Cup experience.

"I'm obviously happy that I've got excellent leaders around me," Mortlock said.

Vice captain George Gregan endorsed Mortlock's leadership, a role he said his former Brumbies team-mate has grown into.

"He's just got more familiar (with the captaincy) I think; you get better and better the more you do it … it's been good seeing Stirlo, not only as a captain on the field, he's grown in a lot of ways outside of football," Gregan said.

Mortlock was confident in his squad ahead of the Wallabies' World Cup opener against Japan in Lyon on September 8, and said the team has progressed nicely under coach John Connolly's tenure.

"I think the team has slowly built upon our game over the last year, or year-and-a-half, and with that we feel as though we've improved and are playing better and with that also our confidence has improved along the way," Mortlock said.