Tito took over the captaincy from fellow Kiwi, Xavier Rush for the 2008/09 season, and led the Cardiff Blues to their first piece of silverware, lifting the EDF Energy Cup in April 2009.

A big favourite with the Cardiff Blues crowd, Tito joined the Blues from Taranaki in the summer of 2007 and made an instant impact with supporters, being voted Worthington's Player of the Year in his debut season, after making 22 appearances for the region.

The 31-year-old forward has previous captaincy experience having captained Taranaki, The Hurricanes, New Zealand Under-21 and also led the New Zealand Maoris to victory in the 2006 Churchill Cup.

Speaking of the role Paul said: "I enjoyed the captaincy last year and it was great to reward the supporters with some success up in Twickenham. We are getting stronger as a squad and team, season on season, and everyone is geared up for our first match.

"We'd all had a good rest over the summer months but have now been back in training for a few weeks. I think things will be harder for us this season as we are a bit more of a known quantity especially in the Heineken Cup, where we performed so well last year."