"I had sleepless nights" - Fin Smith reveals 'horrific week' ahead of Lions call-up & his plans to make Lions-capped Grandfather proud

Smith learned of the news that he is bound for a trip 'down under' this past Thursday, as Lions head coach Andy Farrell and Chair Ieuan Evans revealed the 38-man squad at London's iconic 02 Arena. The England halfback described the wait as "the most horrific week of all time", with the anticipation getting the better of him in the build up to the official announcement.

"It’s mental; the most horrific week of all time. I had sleepless nights and was stressing all day." Smith said in a recent Northampton Saints press conference. "Then, that day comes and they didn’t half drag the announcement out either, did they? We thought it would be at 2pm and we ended up hearing at five to three. Then obviously I was sat with a load of the other lads and watched the other boys get called out and was like: ‘Oh no, this is going to be awful if it doesn’t happen for me now.’

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"Then it got announced and I was an absolute wreck. I don’t really cry and never have but I was bawling my eyes out. I went outside and phoned my parents. They were both sobbing, I was sobbing on the other end of the phone. We didn’t actually say a word to each other; we just sort of watched each other cry and then hung up the phone. It’s something so rare in sport these days that you find out in that manner. It really is that rare and raw. Mental. What a day. What a day."

In a video that has since done the rounds on rugby's social media space, Smith watched his name be called for the Lions alongside a trio of his soon to be touring teammates. Smith and his Northampton brothers Henry Pollock, Alex Mitchell and Tommy Freeman are all bound for the trip to Australia, in what speaks volumes of the green, black and gold club. Even more impressive was the testament of unpicked Lions hopefuls Fraser Dingwall and George Furbank, who disregarded their personal disappointments for the successes of their teammates.

"It’s mad isn’t it? Dingers (Fraser Dingwall) and Furbs (George Furbank) are two unbelievable players who could well have been in that squad. What a testament to those two in general, just as people. Dingers found out that he wasn’t in the squad as soon as Tommy’s (Freeman) name was read out, and he jumped straight over to him and gave him the biggest hug ever.

"It was genuine joy, and Furbs was just delighted. We went on and had a nice celebration that evening and Dingers was the one who hosted us all. He said: ‘Come over, I’ve got a couple of bottles of champagne for you guys. I’ll do a meal for you all.’

"To be as disappointed as I’m sure he was and to put that aside and show genuine happiness for your mates and realise it is a special day for them and want to be there for them… I don’t know how he did it. I’m not a good enough person to do that. I’d have told them all to f*** off and sat at home. Fair play to him. What a guy. He’s amazing, isn’t he? What a guy. I’m obviously gutted for him but his shot will come."

The picks were revealed in an agonising alphabetical order, with Smith's surname down towards the end of the announcement. Whilst being so caught up in the anticipation, Smith was unable to think about how Jack Crowley, George Ford, Owen Farrell or Sam Prendergast were left out of the squad, as his name followed that of all of those competing fly halves.

"Exactly, you’re trying to figure out the alphabet as it was going on thinking: ‘Oh God, I’ve got a couple until it might be me.’ I feel for Tomos Williams, he must have been stressing out after waiting there the whole time and I was towards the end as well."

“I hadn’t actually thought about it like that. The only one was I knew 'R' was before me so I knew Finn Russell would be the person potentially before me, and it was only about an hour afterwards I was thinking, ‘who actually got on’. So it was only about an hour later, I saw who was included, the names you mentioned. You are so sh*tting yourself, you don’t really have a chance to think about other names."

Whilst the call-up is a tremendous honour for any player from the Home Nations, the achievement of earning his spot upon the Lions tour has the added emotional investment for Smith. As his Grandfather starred upon the tour some 70 years ago, it's now time for Smith to take centre stage, and lead on the family legacy which was started upon the 1955 tour.

"It’s the pinnacle really isn’t it." Smith said. "It gets me emotional thinking about it. I’ve grown up running around in his old kit and his old blazer. I believe that I’m English and play for England. He obviously played for Scotland, but all I’ve ever wanted to do is be like him and replicate him.

"To actually have the chance to do that and wear the same shirt and the same badge that he did is incredibly special. It made mum and her side of the family pretty emotional yesterday. They’re all at home with their Scottish accents and can half-heartedly cheer for me when I play for England, but this is the pinnacle.

"Doing what he’s done and following in his footsteps, in the main thing out of everything with this, for me. That’s what makes me more proud than any individual accolade I could have. It’s amazing. It’s pretty cool."

"I’m hoping they’ll (The Lions) have some swanky suit sponsor who can come and measure us all up. I’ve got his old one from the 1950s at home. It’s a bit dusty and there are a few holes in it, but it’ll be cool to have both of those."

Whilst Smith would not allow himself to get his hopes up for the Lions tour, he admitted to having some slight sense of optimism after reading the numerous predicted teams that went bounding around online. Smith was backed by the press, fans and pundits alike after a stellar Six Nations campaign, and how he's led Northampton to the Champions Cup Final after a sensational triumph in Dublin.

"It’s been weird, really up and down. The Autumns were frustrating for me because I didn’t really get a shot (with England) and we’ve (Northampton) probably been quite poor in the Premiership. If I can look back at the end of this year and I’ve managed to get a couple of games on the Lions tour, play for England a few times and if we go all the way in Europe, you can’t really ask for much more.

"All I’ve ever wanted to do is prove to myself that I can mix it at Test level and I feel like I’ve done that to some extent. That’s been the biggest thing for me. I’ve been really happy with that and it’s nice to see all this stuff coming off the back of it."

"I thought there was quite a lot riding on the game (Northampton v Leinster) at the weekend. I was pretty nervous for that, but happy with what I put out on the pitch in Dublin and gave it my best shot. Then even if I wasn’t picked, I was happy with the last six months of rugby and it would be someone’s opinion versus someone else’s, so I could almost live with it.

"I must admit, as much as I try not to look at social media, as all these predicted squads were coming out I was thinking: ‘Hang on, I’m in a few of these. I might have a shot’. Then it was keeping everything crossed and, luckily, it went my way."