Kyle Sinckler: ‘I’m just excited to hit people for a living’

Lions rookie Kyle Sinckler feels like he is in rugby heaven on the eve of his debut in the famous red jersey. Yet his thirst for knowledge may be hell for his teammates.

By his own admission, the 24-year-old England tighthead prop is a British & Irish Lions nut, a young man in his first season of international rugby who just eight years ago was a teenager crying in his kitchen because they had lost a series to South Africa.

Tomorrow, in Whangarei, he will pack down in a Lions front row with 2009 veteran Alun Wyn Jones pushing right behind him as the tour gets underway against the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians.