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Jack Willis and Blair Kinghorn may be enjoying a stellar season with Toulouse, but don’t expect either to tour with the British and Irish Lions.
Both were to the fore as Toulouse downed Toulon 21-18 to reach the Investec Champions Cup semifinals. Willis scored a try, and Kinghorn was his usual dangerous self on the wing and when covering fullback Thomas Ramos.
Talk quickly turned to whether they will tour Australia with the Lions, but Willis was at his diplomatic best on The Good, The Bad, And The Rugby Podcast.
“You’d be lying if you said you didn’t want to go on it, but there are so many great players out there playing well internationally and for their club,” he said.
“What I do in the week and at the weekend is what I can control, I can’t think or do anything other than that.”
FIXTURE CLASH
Willis missed the Six Nations due to the Rugby Football Union’s (RFU) rule banning overseas-based players, and while Scotland’s Kinghorn was the standout British and Irish fullback, it is unlikely to be enough.
Andy Farrell will announce his Lions squad on 8 May. Before then Toulouse, who sit five points above Bordeaux-Begles at the Top 14 summit, have two Top 14 matches and the Champions Cup semi.
The Top 14 Final is on 28 June, the same day the Lions play their first match on Australian soil, and a week after they’ve faced Argentina in Dublin.
On 8 May Toulouse will still be in line to qualify for the Top 14 semifinals, and even if they don’t reach the final, they will be reluctant to release the pair until their season is over.
It makes picking them a gamble Farrell is unlikely to take. They can also look back on Toulon’s 2017 issue.
BREAK-CLAUSE ISSUES
Toulon allowed Leigh Halfpenny a clause to leave early with the Lions. They then went into the Top 14 Final without their main kicker and subsequently lost 22-16 to Clermont Auvergne.
At fulltime it left Richard Cockerill, who had taken the coaching reigns mid-season, shaking his head at the decision.
Injuries aren’t unheard of on Lions Tours, giving them a backdoor. In 2001 and 2005 backrowers Lawrence Dallaglio and Simon Taylor both returned home after one match, while in 2009 Halfpenny was a mid-tour arrival.
Hopefully, Farrell has everything in place if he wants Willis and Kinghorn on standby, meanwhile don’t be surprised to see them on holiday in Bali in late June, just in case.