Early days in a Lions camp can be nervy and everyone wants to play in Friday’s first match but Argentina provide a tough test
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very single member of the British & Irish Lions squad is in the perfect sweet spot at the moment. Blair Kinghorn aside, they all arrived into camp with a spring in their step and a smile on their face because their dreams have been realised. Speaking from experience, it is amazing how quickly you can leave national allegiances at the door.
At this stage, there is no sense of what the Test team will be, no division, or feeling that you have to make do with being a midweek dirt-tracker – the thing you are probably most nervous about is who your roommate will be. You know it will be someone from a different country and my first roommate was Keith Earls. As the youngest member of the 2009 squad, he was responsible for looking after the Lions mascot and I felt like I needed to mind him. I soon realised there are few as competitive as Keith and he did not need minding at all.
You can arrive into camp with preconceived ideas of what certain people will be like. Whenever I had played against Ronan O’Gara I had to be so mentally switched on because he was such a fierce competitor with incredible drive and had this uncanny ability to catch you out of position with a spiral kick. He was pretty chirpy on the pitch too, but he is someone I am still in touch with to this day.
