Flutey to realise Lions ambition (From Campaign Series)

Flutey to realise Lions ambition

6:20am Friday 3rd July 2009

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WHEN Riki Flutey takes the field against South Africa at Ellis Park it will be the fulfilment of a goal he first dared write in his diary only last November.

Flutey keeps a playbook and every week, just before a game, he jots down his personal ambitions and aspirations, both for the 80 minutes to come and for his career.

The Brive-bound centre made his Test debut for England against the Pacific Islands on November 8. On that weekend he set his sights on the British and Irish Lions.

Flutey accomplished that first step after an impressive Six Nations campaign with England. He will achieve the ultimate goal tomorrow, when he tackles the Springboks in a Test match for the Lions.

"When I played my first Test for England, I wrote down in my diary every week that I wanted to play for this team because I knew it was a higher honour,’’ Flutey said yesterday, after being named at inside centre.

"To achieve that goal was amazing - and then it was all about challenging to be in the Test team.

"Now I have got an opportunity to play a Test match for the Lions, it is huge.’’ That opportunity has arisen after Brian O'Driscoll and Jamie Roberts were both injured in last weekend's brutal second Test defeat to the Springboks in Pretoria.

The Lions changing room at Loftus Versfeld resembled a scene from MASH.

"I have never been in a changing room like it. I walked in there to find that five boys had been taken to hospital and everyone was gutted to have lost the series with a goal-kick,’’ said Flutey.

"It is unfortunate Drico and Jamie have come down with some injuries - but it gives me the opportunity to show what I can do against some of the best players in the world.’’ Flutey has been doing that all tour and it was to his frustration that Roberts and O'Driscoll formed a purring centre partnership while he was still recovering from injury.

A knee problem sustained after an eye-catching debut off the bench in the Lions' opening game almost forced him off tour. Doctor James Robson revealed that in years gone by he would definitely have been sent home.

But Flutey was determined to remain on tour. It was not a life-long ambition for the New Zealand-born utility back - how could it be? - but that did not mean he wanted the opportunity any less.

He woke up every two hours through the night to ice his knee in order to reduce the swelling. It worked. Flutey remained on tour and tomorrow he becomes a Test Lion.

"It has been a little bit of a frustrating tour for me because I have just got a few niggling injuries. For the first couple of weeks I was in my bedroom just getting my injuries right,’’ he said.

"When the boys were going sight-seeing I was just trying to be as professional as I could. My knee was swollen up. There is fluid inside the knee joint and there is a little chip of my lateral meniscus.

"I was worried that I was going to be the first one to get on the plane to go home but I have done everything I could to stay here.

"I got to my room, put on my jeans and my shirt and I was ready to go out with the boys but it started feeling a bit stiff so I decided to stay in and iced up.

"Mike Phillips was my roomie and he had a dead leg. I got him up every two hours as well. I said to him: 'Come on bro, put this on'.

"He came right in four days. I am glad I did that otherwise I could have been sent home.’’ As a teenager, Flutey's diary would simply have said: "To play for the All Blacks’’. He could never have envisaged where rugby would take him.

After growing tired of his role as utility back at the Wellington Hurricanes and having missed the boat with the All Blacks, Flutey headed for England.

After a spell at London Irish, Flutey joined Wasps for 2007-08 season - and that is where his career took off.

Flutey was named players' player of the year in his first season at Wasps, made his England debut in November after qualifying on residency grounds. And then came the Lions.

"My father Whana was a rugby player and a player coach. I remember as a youngster just seeing old video tapes of the Lions in the 1970s and 1980s,’’ said Flutey.

"It all hit me again in 2005 when I played against them for Wellington. At the time I didn't even know I was coming over to England to play rugby.

"Over the last 12 months, getting selected for England and now the British and Irish Lions, it has been fantastic.’’

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