Byrne basks in glory of life with Lions

SHANE BYRNE is loving every minute of this. After helping to get the Lions tour back on track by playing a starring role in the 23-6 victory over Wellington on Wednesday, he is basking in one of his finest hours.

“For God’s sake, stop, why wouldn’t you be? I’d like to say this is a dream come true but it’s not because I never even dreamt I’d be in the Lions, so this is just absolutely fantastic,” Byrne said.

“I’ve just won a game wearing a Lions jersey so it doesn’t get much better than this.

“This just makes it all worth it, the being away from home, away from the family, all the shitty days training, this makes it all worthwhile.”

After the patchy play of the three other hookers on this tour to New Zealand, Byrne has every right to feel pleased following his night’s work at the Westpac Stadium.

Accurate with his lineout throwing, aggressive in the front row and mobile in the loose, Byrne made a striking case for inclusion in the Lions 22 for the first Test against New Zealand in Christchurch a week on Saturday.

Only a barnstorming performance from tomorrow’s team captain Gordon Bulloch and, more likely, from Woodward favourite Steve Thompson off the bench, will snatch the possibility away from the Irishman.

He has plenty of fans, not least fellow Ireland forward Simon Easterby, another standout performer against Wellington.

“Munch is great,” Easterby said yesterday. “He loves the lineouts and takes a lot of pride in his throwing in. He worked well with Ben (Kay) who was controlling the lineouts as well and we had a lot of options with myself, Danny (Grewcock), Martin (Corry) and Ben so that makes it that much easier for a hooker. Having said that, Munch’s throwing in is pretty much second to none.

“For him not playing for Ireland for a long part of his career with Keith Wood being there, Frankie Sheahan as well, he’s done fantastically well. He’s a guy with a lot of self-confidence and he backs his ability, which is great; you need that, especially in that position because it can be a pretty lonely place at times. It would be a fantastic achievement if he were to get selected for the Test side.”

Byrne, as you would expect, is taking nothing for granted.

“If that happens... look, you always try to make sure that you do your best so that if the opportunity arrives you’re in good nick to do it. If it happens it happens.” After defeat to the New Zealand Maori in Hamilton last Saturday, a lot of frustration has appeared to come to the boil in the Lions camp.

Coach Clive Woodward had ordered an increase in the intensity of training and although reports of a bust-up during a public training session in Christchurch on Monday were inaccurate, Byrne acknowledged feelings had been running high and necessarily so. “We’ve been a bit tetchy in training the last couple of days,” Byrne said.

“Everyone has been on each other’s backs because I think after the last day people didn’t want to accept anything else except perfection.

“I thought everybody really stood up to be counted (against Wellington). But it did need that - we all needed that performance. Statements were made at the set piece, at the breakdown, in defence, in attack, everything. It’s good to see that we can adapt and we can just graft out a win the way we did.

“Sometimes it’s the backs day but I thought the pack really stood up; it was a pack’s day out.”

Particularly pleasing for the front row union of Byrne, Gethin Jenkins and Julian White was that set piece play was vastly improved on previous performances.

“The two props on either side of me did absolutely fantastic work and especially towards the end when we couldn’t attack it and we had to adopt a different way of scrummaging, the boys reacted brilliantly to it. There was some superb pushing and that’s not taking anything away from the guys behind us but those two guys were brilliant.”

There is always room for improvement, though, as Byrne admits.

“I was pissed off I missed two lineouts towards the end but the one good thing was we know why it happened. It’s not just like ‘Jesus, what the hell happened there?’ There are reasons why they happened. I’m not telling you what they are but it’s everyone’s fault.

“I overthrew the one to the tail but that’s the way it goes. I was happy enough with my performance but I don’t think I’ve ever come off the pitch thinking I’ve finally had the brilliant game. I enjoyed it, I really enjoyed it and it could have gone for a while longer and I’d still have been quite happy.”