Louis Rees-Zammit knows the hell Henry Pollock is about to endure all too well.
As the youngest player in the British and Irish Lions squad, Pollock must carry around a stuffed lion named BIL everywhere he goes for the team’s 2025 tour of Australia.
It is a tradition that began in 1950 and has remained intact ever since.
However, it’s also customary for the older members on tour to do everything they can to hide BIL from the youngest player.
That’s because it leads to a fine, which is determined by a yet-to-be-decided fines committee.
Rees-Zammit had the honour of minding BIL during the 2021 tour to South Africa, as he became the youngest player selected in the Lions squad in 62 years.
But it wasn’t totally smooth sailing for the Welshman, who converted to the NFL last year yet could make his return to rugby sooner than later.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT’s Hawksbee and Jacobs about BIL, Rees-Zammit revealed he ‘lost it many times’.
Unsurprisingly, BIL went missing thanks to the cheekiness of Rees-Zammit’s older teammates.
Yet the 24-year-old quickly learned which individuals would be able to help him out when it came to recovering the stuffed animal.
“I’ll be training and I can’t look at it all the time,” Rees-Zammit said.
“So it’s on the side of the field, next minute it’s in the top of a tree somewhere. That was the kind of thing that was happening to me.
Pollock is the latest in a long line of stars to look after the Lions’ toy mascotGetty talkSPORTRees-Zammit had some words of wisdom for Pollock on how to look after BIL[/caption]“But I got friendly with the security team, so they were giving me hints on where it was ending up.”
Perhaps Pollock may look to insert a GPS tracker inside BIL so he knows where it will be should it go missing.
But Rees-Zammit had some key words of advice should Pollock proceed with that plan.
“It’s going to be tough for him,” Rees-Zammit said.
“If he’s going to put a tracker in there, don’t tell anyone. Don’t make it loud.”
Pollock has far more than losing BIL to worry about after the Lions were stunned 28-24 by Argentina in Dublin on Friday.
Pollock had a tough outing in his Lions debut against ArgentinaGettyThe England international came off the bench but struggled to make an impact as Los Pumas condemned the Lions to their first loss in an opening fixture since 1971.
At one stage Argentina led 21-10, but the Lions responded emphatically to lead 24-21 with just under 20 minutes remaining.
However, a sensational try from Santiago Cordero put the visitors ahead once more and it was a lead they never relinquished.
Speaking after the contest, Lions coach Andy Farrell pulled no punches in his assessment.
“Losing hurts, especially in this jersey,” Farrell said.
“We need to find solutions quickly and be honest with ourselves. There has to be some good coming from this.
Farrell knows the Lions have plenty to work on ahead of their first Test against the WallabiesGetty“We want a better all-round performance. You can single out one thing but it’s a compounding of quite a few bits.
“The amount of balls we threw blindly either to the opposition or on the floor… what’s disappointing is scraps on the floor, it always seemed to go to Argentina and there’s a fight and hunger there we can’t accept.
“It’s too much when it comes together, it’s compounding. There are things that need to be addressed.
“We need to be honest. There are certain things we said we were going to do and we need to own that and do it properly.
“You can’t win a Test with that error-rate. We lost enough ball for a full tour never mind a Test against Argentina.
“Throwing passes which were never on; the aerial battle; scraps on the floor – they were hungrier than us and that’s not acceptable.
“Line-out and breakdown were off a little bit at times.”
The Lions on talkSPORT
talkSPORT has all of the British and Irish Lions matches live across the network. Eddie Jones is among the star-studded line-up leading the coverage Down Under.
June 20, Dublin: Lions vs Argentina
June 28, Perth: Lions vs Western Force
July 2, Brisbane: Lions vs Queensland Reds
July 5, Sydney: Lions vs New South Wales Waratahs
July 9, Canberra: Lions vs ACT Brumbies
July 12, Adelaide: Lions v ANZAC XV
July 12, Brisbane: Lions v Wallabies
July 22, Melbourne: Lions v First Nations and Pasifika XV
July 26, Melbourne: Lions v Wallabies
August 2, Sydney: Lions v Wallabies
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