Home alone Rhys had no-one to celebrate Lions call-up with
BRIDGEND-BORN Rhys Webb has revealed that he had no-one to celebrate his call-up to the British and Irish Lions squad with because he was left home alone when the announcement was made.
The Wales and Ospreys star was one of 12 Welshmen to make Warren Gatland’s 41-man squad for the tour of New Zealand in the summer and one of four Ospreys players – along with Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Dan Biggar – to be included.
But the 28-year-old scrum-half has revealed that he had to celebrate his call-up on his own because no-one was at home when he returned from training to watch the announcement.
“I appreciate everyone was talking about me and people were saying ‘you must know you’re in there’. But if I knew I was in there I wouldn’t have been so nervous watching the announcement,” Webb told BBC Radio Wales .
“I shot home straight from training, we had the option to watch it there but I went home.
“I had the house to myself, I put it on pause to give myself time to have a coffee and a chocolate bar.
“It was announced I’d made it so I fist-pumped in the house on my own, had a big scream and I was obviously over the moon. But I had no-one to hug or to high-five, everyone was out and about.
“Luckily enough my mate called over about half an hour later and we celebrated with a Wagamama’s.
“Two-and-a-half hours later my mum and dad decided to answer the phone, they’d been out of signal.
“They had the kids and everything. The youngest one didn’t have a clue but my six-year-old obviously knows a lot about what’s going on in rugby these days.
“He’s been asking me over the last couple of weeks ‘when are you going to play for the Lions?’
“I’d say ‘I’m not sure, daddy’s got to keep playing well and working hard’ and trying to explain the tradition to him.
“When I told him yesterday that I’d been picked for the Lions he was gobsmacked and that was an amazing feeling.”
Webb – who will tour with the Lions for the first time this summer – was selected as one of three scrum-halves along with Ireland’s Conor Murray and England man Ben Youngs who both toured Australia in 2013.
And the Ospreys star admits it was almost impossible to ignore the speculation about who would make the squad prior to the official announcement.
“It’s one of those things I didn’t really think about but you obviously know it’s there and you see the promotional videos as the announcement gets closer and it gets the hairs up on the back of your neck,” added the scrumhalf.
“It’s quite a bizarre feeling being named in the initial squad but it’s a massive achievement.
“It’s obviously the pinnacle of your rugby career. The hard work you have to put in to represent your country puts you in with a shot of Lions selection and thankfully I managed to put my hand up in the Six Nations.”