Warren Gatland’s selection will have been affected by the 2009 tour when we were not ready for the Springboks’ brutality
For those players selected in the British & Irish Lions squad on Wednesday, the tour starts this weekend. That’s how I felt when I was lucky enough to have my name read out in 2009; you feel a sense of wanting to prove you deserve your place and you are already thinking about pressing your claims for the Test team. I was up against Shane Williams who had been named World Player of the Year in 2008 so I knew I had my work cut out.
My first match after being selected was a European quarter-final against Leinster and my last was the Premiership semi-final against London Irish. I didn’t find this out for a while afterwards but my mum had a dream in the week that I broke my neck playing rugby. I went up for a high ball in the first 10 minutes and landed on my head – my mum was in the crowd at the time. I just remember thinking I couldn’t go off, I was desperate to help Harlequins to a final. The following Six Nations I was knocked unconscious and had to have a scan, and while I got the all clear for that they noticed I had a displaced disc in my neck that had been there for six months or so. Had I gone off against Irish I really don’t think I would have made the tour so it just goes to show, the fate of these players is the lap of the gods.
