Latest Lion in Australia, Kinghorn's wake-up call for captain Itoje

Scotland's Kinghorn is the final member of the Lions squad to arrive in Australia Blair Kinghorn tapped the keycard on his hotel room door at just before midnight on Monday, the long journey from Paris to Dubai to Brisbane now complete, his bed beckoning. He flicked on the light, threw the bags on the floor and made himself at home. At which point, Maro Itoje popped his head up to say hello. "I was thinking 'surely there won't be anyone in the room'. I was like, 'Oh sorry! You were asleep, weren't you?' It was funny. He woke up, shook my hand and then went straight back to sleep." He may have landed a little too unceremoniously for his captain's liking, but the last and one of the most decorated Lions is here now. It's been quite a season and a half at Toulouse since Kinghorn's move from Edinburgh at the end of 2023. AChampions Cup win over Leinster in 2024after extra time. He played full-back, kicked four penalties in a narrow win and was on the field for the full 100 minutes. Next, the Top 14 semi-final and final. Played left wing in both, scored a try in both and made it two trophies in one month and three days, two more than he managed in his previous eight seasons with Edinburgh. This was fantasy stuff. The thing about dreams is that you normally wake up. Kinghorn is still in that happy place having won another Top 14 title last weekend, again on the wing, again after extra time, again with a 100-minute contribution. Social media carried a shot of him in the mixed zone at the Stade de France, standing around chatting in his Toulouse-branded underpants, as you do. After the final the champions got back to their hotel in Paris at 3am Sunday morning, partied, and then Kinghorn headed for the airport. How much sleep did he get? "Confidential," he said, with a smile that told you nothing and yet told you everything. You'd have expected him to fetch-up for a chat in Brisbane looking a little ropey, but adrenaline was getting him through. These are the best of days for the Scot. At every turn, there's a new adventure. "It's been a massive focus on winning the Top 14 with Toulouse," he said, at the side of the pitch at the Lions training base in east Brisbane. "Our coach [Ugo Mola] was saying we've had such a great season - stats-wise, we're at the top of everything - but it means nothing if you don't win a trophy. So there was a lot of pressure on us and to win was unbelievable. I'm then straight on a plane. It [the Lions] feels a bit more real for me now." Kinghorn (second from right) helped Toulouse beat Bordeaux-Begles 39-33 after extra time in an all-time classic Top 14 final last weekend Kinghorn's fantastic versatility is part of why he's here. Full-back is, in his own words, his favourite position, and it's where he plays his Test rugby. He's played five of his last six games for Toulouse on the left wing and he's also played right wing. He scored a try for Scotland against the Wallabies while playing 10. "I've played the majority of my rugby at full-back, so I still say that's probably my best position," the 28-year-old says. "At club level, it's different. We have positions, but we don't really have positions. Everything's interchangeable, it's not structured, so you're floating around. Winger's the same as a full-back in most instances." On the night the Lions were playing the Pumas in Dublin, Kinghorn was playing Bayonne in the Top 14 semi-final in Lyon. When the Lions were going up against Western Force in Perth, Kinghorn was running out in front of French president Emmanuel Macron and 80,000 others in Paris for the domestic final against European champions Bordeaux. It turned out to be an all-time classic. He continues: "I was so focused on finishing the season well with Toulouse that I hadn't many thoughts about [the Lions]. I tried to keep them at the back of my head just because I wanted to stay in the moment. Now I can turn my full attention to this and it's really exciting. Did Andy Farrell or any of the Lions coaches keep him up to speed with what was going on in their camp? "No, I think all the coaches understand how intense it is to be in the knockout stages of your league competition. They all know that overloading information is not going to help anyone. "The next couple of days will be head-in-the-book days for me, I just need to learn everything and catch up with where the boys are at. Hopefully I'll catch on pretty quickly. All I can do is learn as fast as I can and show what I can do if I get the chance to play." He's got some ground to make up, for sure. Elliot Daly is the early Lions pace-setter at full-back and Hugo Keenan has a big opportunity against the Queensland Reds on Wednesday. Best-case scenario is that Kinghorn starts against the Waratahs on Saturday. That's game three in Australia. There are only two more after that before we get to the Test series. Toulouse has been the most extraordinary move for him. Everything is different there, he says. "The squad is so deep and so talented that you've got to be on top of your game. You've got to come into training every day and work hard. Coaches are on your back the whole time, which is great. It's high pressure, but it makes you thrive. "Having great players and great coaches around you does make you a better player. The way that Toulouse see the game is similar to the way I like to play, so it's matched up nicely there. Competition for places, consistency of training, high pressure." Back in April, Kinghorn picked up a knee injury and missed two months of the season, a blessing in disguise in a sense. "I was injured for eight weeks. It's never fun, but it freshened the brain up a little bit." He's about to bring that energy to the camp now, a late arrival, but quite possibly a very key man in the weeks ahead.