Just reward for a happy hooker

YOU could never compare a hooker’s tale to a Cinderella story, but Shane Byrne’s journey from Leinster journeyman to a Lions Test cap comes pretty close.

Byrne was yesterday rewarded for sterling work over the last four weeks of this Lions adventure when he was named in the starting line-up to face the All Blacks at Jade Stadium, Christchurch, this Saturday morning.

"I think I'll have to pinch myself," Byrne said of his selection. "The only thing you can do on a tour like this is make sure you take your opportunities and you can sit back then, five minutes before they announce the test team, and say 'look, I've done everything I can do and I feel happy' and the rest is in the lap of the gods. That's the way I felt mentally just before they announced the team and I was a very happy man after the announcement, a very happy camper."

Although Byrne's case for Test selection has been gathering momentum with every performance, the Leinster man has been wary of backing himself for the starting position at No. 2.

"You have to check yourself because you can't allow yourself to think like that. Every now and again a coach will come up and ask you something and you're thinking 'why would he be asking me that?' But you have to stop yourself because you'd get carried away and you can also drive yourself mad thinking about the 'what ifs?' and the ifs and buts.

"The professional in you thinks it's always great to get on the tour but once you get out here you want to be in the Test team. Unfortunately there are only 15 starts and 22 in total but I'm just delighted to be there."

Woodward's decision to name a 22 for the midweek tour game against Southland in Invercargill last Sunday was effectively a Test announcement by default and it left the hooker position to a head-to-head contest between Byrne and Steve Thompson.

While dismissing the notion of trying to nobble his rival in the ensuing training sessions, Byrne admitted it had been an unusual mix of emotions.

"When he was announcing the team for Invercargill it was very strange, wanting your name not to be on a Lions team. But when it was announced you go 'okay, here you are, there's really a chance of being involved in something special here'. Then when he announced the team today it was just fantastic. But it is a bit strange wishing your name not to be on the list."

Byrne heard the Test team in the company of his squad-mates at a team meeting on Wednesday morning.

"He didn't go through it name by name, he just put it up there on a screen and you're going through it, 1, 2, 3.. where's my name? Who's number two? It was great and actually quite a good way to do it."

Byrne said that it was there that he received the perfect response from his fellow hookers in the squad, Andy Titterrell, Gordon Bulloch and his direct rival Thompson.

"The great thing was everyone was in the room and coming up to you and congratulating you, everyone in your position, Steve and Gordon. At this stage they're your friends and there's no kind of bitterness at all. That's one thing that they've really stamped out well on this tour, there's nothing like that going on. There are just four really great guys and you feel bad for them."

Byrne is also aware that it is now his job to hang on to the role by putting in a good performance this Saturday morning.

"This is just the first Test and now you're on the Test side you want to make sure that you do your bit to get the team to win. You obviously want to keep going and stay on the team and the responsibility is there without a doubt.

"If you let the side down you probably won't get on the side again. You don't what that to happen and so there's loads of different pressures put upon you; but it is way outweighed by the joy of getting in.

"When they present you with the jersey it is a moment to treasure. Each time in the games I've played so far, it's all written in on the jersey and you have to have a good old stare at that. It's something you would never have dreamed of."

That a Lions Test jersey has come his way so late in a career that saw him in and out of the Ireland squad for eight years before winning his first cap in 2001 makes the moment even more special.

"For those wilderness years, Byrne found himself not just behind Keith Wood in the pecking order but a dozen more hookers besides, from Terry Kingston through Allan Clarke and Ross Nesdale to Frankie Sheahan.

"It was 1993 the first time I got in the Irish squad and 2001 was the first cap and a lot of that time was my own fault. I was playing crap in the 90s, there's no doubt about it.

"But I just decided to start working on myself and just make sure that if the opportunity ever does arise and the clock was ticking, let's face it that I would be at my best. That I would be as good as I can be. And I've just kept that going I suppose.

"First of all make sure you're good enough to get selected for the team and then when you get there you do your job. That's the way I looked at it and maybe it's also because I'm stubborn and I just wouldn't go away.

"But I'm at the stage where I wouldn't change anything. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't get capped in 1993 or 1994 or any of those times because who knows, if you changed one thing and I'd have got capped in the mid-90s I might not be here."