BRISBANE, Australia -- From lifting the Top 14 shield aloft on Sunday morning (AEST) with his Toulouse teammates, to walking into his Brisbane hotel room in the early hours of Tuesday morning, it's been a whirlwind few days for British & Irish Lions wing Blair Kinghorn, who must now shift his focus from championship glory to Test match rugby.
The Scotland wing played the full 100-minutes against Bordeaux-Begles in Paris, including the grueling extra-time, as his side held on for a 39-33 win in dramatic fashion to claim a third straight French crown. But with just a few hours to celebrate with his teammates, Kinghorn was quickly whisked onto a plane and flown straight to Australia where he linked up with his Lions teammates for the first time on Tuesday.
"We had such a great season, but it doesn't mean much if you don't win a trophy, so there was a lot of pressure on us, and to come away and win it was unbelievable and then straight on a plane here," Kinghorn told media at the captain's run ahead of the Lions second tour match against the Queensland Reds on Wednesday.
"We got back to the hotel before three, we had a party in the hotel with all the families, friends, and some sponsors. It's kind of a good way to finish off the season, everyone being together in the same place. And then I was sent to the airport for about midday."
If he was expecting special treatment after claiming his second Top 14 title, such as a hotel room to himself, there was no such luck with the title winner meeting his tour captain Maro Itoje as he walked through the door early Tuesday morning.
"I'm [rooming] with Maro [Itoje]. I got in about quarter past 12 and I was thinking 'surely there won't be anyone in the room', I got in, chucked my bags down and Maro just sat straight up in bed. I obviously woke him up. He woke up, sat up, shook my hand and laid straight down and went back to sleep," Kinghorn said laughing.
"It's good to finally be here. It feels a bit more real now, which is good because obviously getting announced in the squad and then not having the chance to meet up with the boys, not that it doesn't make it feel not real, but now that I'm actually here, I've got all the kit, it feels real."
Unable to watch the Lions loss to Argentina as he was playing his Top 14 semifinal at the same time, Kinghorn said he did get a chance to see the first half of the Lions dominant win 54-7 over the Western Force on Saturday night. In fact, the 28-year-old admitted he'd been keeping the Lions tour back of mind, determined to keep his focus only on winning a title with Toulouse. But now he's all in.
"I think honestly, I was so focused on finishing the season well with Toulouse that I didn't have many thoughts about this and tried to keep it to the back of my head, just because I want to stay present at the moment and finish the season really strongly with Toulouse. Now I can kind of turn my full attention to this and it's really exciting.
"I think the [Lions] coaches understand how intense it is to be in the knockout stages of your league competition, so I think they all know that overloading information there wasn't going to help anyone, so no [the coaches didn't contact with gameplans]. The next couple of days will be learning, catching up with everyone, seeing where the boys are at, but that'll catch on pretty quickly."
Kinghorn now has his focus set on running out in Lions colours for the first time against the NSW Waratahs on Saturday after missing the two opening tour matches. While he's been forced to hit the ground running to prepare for Saturday's clash, the wing is relishing the challenge.
"Everyone's here to do their best to win the Test series and have a successful tour. Every training session is going to be competitive, everyone's motivated. That's what you want, that brings the best out of people.
"If you're not motivated to be here, then you shouldn't be here. I don't think it's tough. It's not tough at all."