BRISBANE, Australia – From lifting up the top 14 shield lofts alongside his Toulouse teammates on Sunday morning (AEST) to entering a hotel room in Brisbane early on Tuesday morning, there was a swirl vortex for the British & Ireland Lions Wing Blair Kinghorn, who now has to focus on rugby matches from Championship Glory.
The Scottish Wing played a full 100-minute 100 minutes against Bordeaux Begules in Paris. With tough extra time among them, his team won a 39-33 victory in a dramatic way to win the third straight French crown. However, for a few hours to celebrate with his teammates, Kinghorn was quickly whisked into the plane, flying straight to Australia and linked with his Lions teammate on Tuesday.
“We had such a great season, but it didn’t mean much if we didn’t win the trophy, so there was a lot of pressure on us.
“We went back to the hotel with three people. We had a party at the hotel with all our family, friends and sponsors. It was a good way to finish the season, everyone is in the same place and I was sent to the airport around noon.”
If he was expecting special treatment after winning the second top 14 titles, including a hotel room, the title winner who met Captain Maroije, who was walking the door early on Tuesday morning, had no such luck.
“I’m with Maro (Itoje) and (room) I was past a 12th and into the quarter. I was like, ‘There’s certainly no one in the room.’
“It’s good to be here at last, it’s a little more realistic because it was clearly announced on the team and we didn’t have the opportunity to meet the boys.
Kinghorn said he couldn’t see the Lions lose to Argentina as they played the Top 14 semi-finals at the same time, and that he managed to win 54-7 with the Lions’ dominant 54-7 on Saturday night. In fact, the 28-year-old admitted that he had brought the Lions Tour back to his mind and decided to focus solely on winning the title with Toulouse. But now he’s all in.
“To be honest, I was focused on finishing the season well at Toulouse, so I didn’t have much thought about this, so I tried to keep it in the back of my head, just because I want to finish the season with Toulouse, and now I can fully pay attention to this.
“I think the (Lion) coaches understand how intense it is to be in the knockout stage of your league competition, so I think they know that the overload information there won’t help anyone.
Kinghorn is focusing on running in the colour of the Lions against the NSW Waratahs for the first time on Saturday after missing two opening tour matches. The wings enjoy the challenge while he is forced to run and hit the ground to prepare for Saturday’s crash.
“Everyone is trying their best to win the Test series and make the tour successful. Every training session is competitive and everyone is motivated.
“If you’re not motivated to be here, you shouldn’t be here. I don’t think it’s difficult. It’s not difficult at all.”