Ben Youngs says the excitement of becoming a British & Irish Lions player hit him after the Aviva Premiership Final.

On Sunday the Leicester Tigers scrum-half met up with the Lions party, which includes his brother Tom and four other club colleagues, for the trip to Australia, via an opening fixture in Hong Kong this weekend.

Youngs collected the third Premiership title of his career and said: “It’s been strange because I’ve been trying to put the Lions to one side and not think too much about it until after the Final.

“Normally you come to the end of the season and you’re looking forward to an England tour, but the Lions is just once every four years and you might never get a chance again.

“It is a very special thing in the game and now I want to embrace it and get to know all the guys in the squad.

“We met up for one day last week and it was incredible, it was very exciting just to be involved. Now I can enjoy it.

“We’ve got a bit of work to do but we’ve got some tremendous competition and we’re just going to get straight into it and get on with it.”