This is a strange time for those players who have been named as part of the 38-man British and Irish Lions squad to tour Australia. You could call it a “phoney war”, but it is from this point on that their thoughts will turn to the battle for starting berths.
It is an honour to be selected for any Lions tour, but Test appearances make the experience complete. Every selected player will have this at the back of his mind from now until the first Test squad is named. All this has been made more opaque by Andy Farrell’s decision to leave open two places to give what he calls “wiggle room” to continue to look at “a few guys that are trying to play back into fitness and form”.