The Lion with whom Hogg struck an unlikely friendship

Scotland and Lions fullback Stuart Hogg would have been forgiven for not expecting to strike up a friendship with controversial England captain Owen Farrell during the Lions tour to South Africa, however, the Scot has been full of praise for his English counterpart since said tour’s conclusion. 

“Somebody that has really, really impressed me in the last few weeks is Owen Farrell. He speaks really, really well. He gives you a huge amount of confidence to go out there and execute your role. 

“And if you don’t quite get it right he is quick to jump on you at that opportunity as well but he spoke on Tuesday after the session and not everything was perfect, we had some tricky weather conditions to deal with but we got out of that session what we needed. It was scrappy at times, we know it is going to be scrappy in the games, but he spoke incredibly well after that and I left that training field in a much better place than what I initially thought. 

“As I say, I have learned a huge amount from a lot of boys in this squad and I am absolutely loving the opportunity to get better.” 

Both fierce competitors, Hogg and Farrell have met many times in the heat of battle, but the former admits he was surprised at the latter’s off-field nature.  

“I thought he was going to be intense throughout the whole time, but he’s one of them that’s intense on a training field and he knows what he wants from it, but as soon as you finish training he’s proper chilled out.”