Life in the British and Irish Lions camp isn’t easy at the best of times.
The short format of modern tours means barely a second is wasted, with quick turnarounds between matches.
This year’s tour has only ramped things up, given the challenges presented by Covid-19 in South Africa.
So what is life like inside the Lions camp right now?
Well, Warren Gatland’s side are currently based in the luxurious Arabella Country Estate near the coastal town of Hermanus, which is around a 90-minute drive outside of Cape Town.
Boasting one of South Africa’s top golf courses, a luxury spa and four stunning pools, it’s the ideal location to prepare for the Test series – even if the golf course is sometimes off-limits due to Covid restrictions.
Having started the tour with midweek games, the training schedule for the Lions is now back to what looks like a more normal Test week – with the tourists training on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday before the captain’s run on a Friday.
In terms of a day-to-day schedule, the Lions’ day will start with breakfast and a physical screening. Players and management need to fill out Covid-19 declaration forms every morning, as well as recording their temperature before the day really begins.
That’s naturally a crucial part of the tour in the current climate, with players undergoing Covid testing three or four times a week – right from meeting up in Jersey to their current base in South Africa.
The hotel itself is deemed a “red zone”, meaning it is in full lockdown. No one is able to enter without accreditation, with only select broadcast media able to enter after undergoing PCR testing.
As for the players and staff, masks are worn in and around the hotel amid other Covid rules.
Even when it comes to team meals, plastic bags are worn on hands to pick up plates and then serve the food.
Back to the day-to-day schedule, the morning training sessions will tend to be focused on units and weights, with the forwards and backs splitting up.
After a morning’s work, the team will then travel back to the hotel for lunch and media duties, before doing a team training session in the afternoon.
After that, the team return to hotel for recovery, with the hotel boasting a number of excellent facilities such as hot and cold pools and a sauna.
In the evenings, the squad put on entertainment – with one recent evening seeing former Wales hooker Huw Bennett organising a quiz night.
The team area has dart board, a pool table, video game consoles, an area for coffee and a set of DJ decks.
In particular, the latter two have proven popular.
English duo Elliot Daly and Jamie George have been impressing with their barista skills, while Tadhg Beirne has been baking chocolate cookies for good measure.
As for the decks, Wales star Josh Navidi – nicknamed Navicii in camp because of his DJing talent – has been taking Tom Curry and Tadhg Furlong under his wing, with the trio even being dubbed ‘scrum and bass’.
Elsewhere, medical guru Prav Mathema has been offering haircuts to anyone who fancied a trim. He was allegedly behind Louis Rees-Zammit’s trim as a result of a fine.
As is common with the Lions, there are naturally lots of committees – such as food, entertainment, announcers, environment, joke of the day, tour guide and laundry.
Dan Biggar has carried on his laundry duties from Wales, with the fly-half running a tight ship in that department after 12 years in the role with his country.
Tour guide duties were dished out to winger Duhan van der Merwe, who was born in South Africa and played his early rugby in the country too.
However, he admitted last week that he wasn’t cut out for the role.
“Oh mate, I’ve been awful honestly. I don’t think they want me to be their tour guide anymore. It’s me and Finn Russell. I went twice and the second time I went, they basically told me to sit down halfway through. So I guess I wasn’t any good!
“They obviously thought I’d be okay. Clearly I’m not.”
As well as doling out coffee, Jamie George is in charge of entertainment alongside strength and conditioning coach Bennett, while tour rookie Louis Rees-Zammit has been assigned ‘joke of the day’.
In addition to that, Robbie Henshaw has the more philosophical duty of ‘thought of the day’.
But it’s his midfield team-mate Bundee Aki who holds the real power in camp, being in charge of fines.
And no one is safe from the Irishman.
Rees-Zammit and Marcus Smith have both had to alter their hairstyles, while lock Jonny Hill, having misplaced his passport, was forced to retrieve his replacement passport after Aki tossed it over a balcony at the airport.
Even head coach Gatland is in danger of a fine.
“The boys had a bit of a laugh [after the first Test], doing some fines and rolling the dice,” the Lions boss said earlier this week.
“I got fined initially and you have 20 seconds to give your account of what happened. The first one was having a beer in the changing rooms and I said that I did not want to be rude because a beer was offered to me by the South Africans so they let me off.
“The second fine was introducing a dummy lineout during the captain’s run so I had to roll the dice for that!”
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