“He walked in there like he owned the place!”
There’s nothing quite as special as a British and Irish Lions tour in rugby. It’s one of the oldest traditions and something fans and players look forward to more than anything.
To see players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland come together to take on a southern hemisphere superpower every four years is nothing short of magical.
And of course, the unique friendships that are made make it even better – resulting in some of the all-time great ‘tour’ stories.
Two men who unexpectedly bonded on the 2017 tour of New Zealand were England winger Anthony Watson and Ireland prop Tadhg Furlong, who became such good friends – they ended up on holidays together in Vegas after the tour.
“It’s always the props!” Watson told us when asked about the unexpected friendships he has made on Lions tours.
“In 2017, it was Tadgh Furlong. He’s gonna be pissed when he hears this but I’m pretty sure I tried to pronounce his name as ‘Tadig’ or something like that and he was fuming!
“I was thinking beforehand ‘he plays in the front-row, I’m a wing, we couldn’t look any different, we are not gonna be cool’
“Then next thing, a week after the tour, we were in Vegas together absolutely loving life!
“There was myself, Tadhg, Kyle Sinckler, Jonathan Joseph, Toby Faletau, Mako [Vunipola] and Maro Itoje.
“You should have seen him in the nightclub in the queue! There’s a club called Drai’s which is generally a hip-hop, rap music place. I’m not sure Tadhg knew what he was getting himself into but I’ve never seen a bloke look more out of place in the queue in my life.
“But he walked in there like he owned the place! So he did alright.”
Watson was chatting to us as an ambassador for StatSports, and on a more serious note, told us about the importance of GPS when training.
“If you’re trying to get faster it’s easier to be able to see what gains you’re making,” Watson said.
“If you’re hitting 9.3/9.4 and it’s trending upwards you know your training is complementing your speed. It’s an absolutely necessary tool.
“I wouldn’t go out and run without a GPS on at all anymore. Whether it’s a straight up 5km, or a speed session or whatever.”
Anthony Watson is an ambassador for STATSports, the world’s leading GPS performance tracker.
