The British and Irish Lions squad will fly out on Saturday for their tour to Australia a man down after Toulouse qualified for next weekend’s Top 14 final in Paris.
Scotland’s Blair Kinghorn was last month selected in Andy Farrell’s Lions squad of 38, but his French club’s challenge for a third successive league title has prevented him from joining up for the tour.
Club commitments meant that Kinghorn was unable to play a part in the Lions’ two-week build-up in Portugal and Dublin before they travel to Australia for a tour that begins with the June 28 match in Perth versus Western Force and is followed by a July 2 clash with the Reds in Brisbane.
Instead of being on Saturday’s long-haul flight to Perth, Kinghorn is still in France preparing for the Top 14 final following Toulouse’s 32-25 semi-final win over Bayonne in Lyon.
While the downside for the Lions is that Kinghorn remains off-limits, the upside to the Scottish back not being involved in Friday’s 24-28 loss to Argentina in Dublin was that he was able to prove his fitness to tour following his recent Toulouse lay-off.
“Blair had cramps, which was logical…”
Before Friday, Kinghorn had last played for Toulouse in an April 26 league match versus Castres, but his semi-final appearance showed that his knee injury has now mended following an eight-week gap in between games.
Toulouse were 26-18 ahead when Kinghorn was replaced in the 57th minute by Matthis Lebel and they will learn later on Saturday whether they will face Bordeaux or Toulon in the Stade de France final.
Asked post-game about his substitution of Kinghorn, Toulouse boss Ugo Mola explained: “Blair had cramps, which was logical. We knew that for the whole week… he lacked rhythm. We knew that would be the case.”