‘Fans’ blow in and out of stadium

The fans were out in force at Aberdeen Stadium - both the cooling type and those who got organisers hot under their collars - as the British & Irish Lions had a taste of the hot, muggy conditions in their first training session yesterday.

The humidity might have had a debilitating effect on assistant coach Rob Howley, who got his fans mixed up.

"We have been blown away by the support we have had over the last few days", Howley said at the daily media briefing, before realising the question he was replying to was referring to the mechanical, industrial-strength fans the Lions management had placed on the track to cool the players down in-between the training runs.

Showing all the guile of a former scrumhalf who won 59 caps for Wales, Howley was quick to recover, however, saying the heat was welcome and that the team would benefit from it looking ahead to Australia.

"It will be good for us to be under this heat stress in training as well as during the game [on Saturday].

"As far as we are concerned, the more pressure we are under the better in the lead-up to Australia," Howley said.