Lions star reveals €500 taxi ride to link up with squad

Needs must.

Your team has just won the Aviva Premiership title for the first time but you are due to link up with the British & Irish Lions squad at 11am. That's the dilemma that faced England winger Jack Nowell on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Nowell had just helped Exeter Chiefs to defeat Wasps in the Premiership final at Twickenham and spark scenes of jubilation that ran long into the night and joyfully bled into Sunday and, for some hardy souls, Monday. https://twitter.com/steeno10/status/868733931369226240 Nowell missed out on the fancy dress antics, Gareth Steenson posing naked with the league trophy and the massive reception the champions got in Exeter on Monday afternoon. He had a good reason though. Just before midday on Sunday, he linked up with the Lions squad in London ahead of their farewell dinner at The Roundhouse. It was some dash up the M5 and M4, as Nowell told reporters:

"I had a taxi booked for 7am [Sunday morning] "Times like this don’t come round often. I wasn’t going to miss any of it."

The taxi ride was about 320 kilometres and would have taken around three and a half hours. One newspaper estimated the fare at £463 [€522] but we'd imagine Nowell may have settled on a better rate beforehand. It just makes sense. Nowell and his new teammates attended the farewell dinner on Sunday evening and he certainly looked a Lion. Upon his arrival, the winger is dead set on nailing down one of the famous red jerseys for the Test Series. "[It's] a complete switch, a ­different mentality [from Exeter]," "All my focus now is on trying to get one of those Test shirts."