Opportunity of my lifetime

Rookie Kyle Sinckler on his big Lions chance

Kyle Sinckler is determined to honour the Lions legacy. Tomorrow, he finally gets to experience rugby’s most mythologised tour in the flesh rather than merely through the prism of the countless DVDS he has watched of the passionate speeches made by icons such as Jim Telfer, Paul O’connell and Phil Vickery.

The 24-year-old Harlequins tighthead, a bolter in the squad after being selected without starting a Test for England, is infused with the spirit of the Lions. This is a self-confessed rugby anorak, able to repeat word-forword all the tales, and who once bawled his eyes out in his mum’s kitchen as the Lions went down to defeat in South Africa in 2009.

On another occasion, he recited Telfer’s famous motivational pep talk from 1997 – “This is your Everest” – deep into the night as he tried to get himself up for a Battersea Ironsides colts game the following morning.

If Sinckler were to be judged on his recall of historical moments from the Lions, he would be a garlanded veteran. As it is, as he acknowledges, he has to prove himself on the pitch. A moment of revelation awaits. “I just want to do my job and do what I do, trying to get the ball in my hand and do some good carries, be solid in defence, good scrum,” Sinckler says. “You have to focus on not letting the moment overwhelm you.”

Even so, he is well versed in what has gone before him. “This is our Everest. I think I’ve watched that about 100 times, I remember watching that as a kid all the time, Telfer sitting down, talking to Martin Johnson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Tom Smith, Paul Wallace. Yeah, they do ask me to do renditions of the Jim Telfers, the Paul O’connells. I’ve watched it all. And I’m not far off being able to perform all of them.

“I like the Phil Vickery one with Andrew Sheridan before the first Test [in South Africa]. What was he saying? ‘You listening to me?’ And then he head butts him! I’ve always been a fan and always will be, so it’s a massive honour for me to put on the jersey and hopefully I leave it in a better place.”

There is little doubt that he is highly regarded by head coach Warren Gatland, who sees him as a potential high-impact player from the bench, where his energy and athleticism would be an asset in the closing stages.

“Kyle is incredibly powerful and, even though he’s still pretty green as a rugby player, he’s got something that the others haven’t got,” says Gatland. “He’s explosive as a ball-carrier. He runs different angles. He’s a bit like an overweight back who ended up in the front row, because he loves the ball in his hands and he likes to think about the angles he can run to get in behind the opposition, using that power that he has and being so explosive off the mark. We need to exploit that.”

There is little doubt that Sinckler is relishing the experience. “I’m in a kind of rugby heaven at the moment,” he says. “I’m pretty sure Rory Best is tired of hearing my voice. He shared a room with me for two or three days and I was always asking him, ‘What was Marcus Horan like?’, ‘What was John Hayes like?’, ‘Jerry Flannery, what was he like?’, ‘Eddie O’sullivan, what was he like?’

“I just want to learn. He’s just there looking at me, like, ‘Really? It’s midnight and we’ve got to get up in a few hours and you’re asking me about the 2007 Six Nations’.”

Eddie Jones, the England head coach, has kept Sinckler under his

‘They do ask me to do renditions of the Jim Telfers, the Paul O’connells. I’ve watched it all’

wing, making sure his energies are pointed in the right direction. Gatland has little time to indulge in pastoral responsibilities. Sinckler is well aware that he needs to be forthright in what he does and not combustible.

“There’s a fine line, isn’t there?” says Sinckler. “If you get too over-emotional, too revved up, too psyched up, then you kind of forget your job, you get in little scuffles. But I don’t know many