Nic White is looking to claim what should’ve been rightly his in 2013 – a shot at the British and Irish Lions.
White and the Wallabies are currently in camp in Sydney for the last time before the start of the series.
The three-day camp is largely focused on medical and physical testing before players join their Super Rugby Pacific sides, with Tate McDermott and Ben Donaldson amongst the standouts during the Bronco Test.
For the scrumhalf, it presses home how close the Lions tour is after his first experience was cut short before it could begin.
White was named in the preliminary Wallabies squad for the 2013 edition after playing an integral role in the ACT Brumbies’ march to the Final, emerging as one of the form halves of Super Rugby.
However, a small fracture in his shoulder meant he sat out a potential Wallabies debut against the combined side along with the Brumbies’ famous tour win in Canberra.
“It’s huge for any rugby player in Australia,” White told reporters. “There’s plenty of guys that will have a great career but bookend (the tour) and just miss it. I think of a guy like Nathan Sharp who debuted just after the Lions and retired just before the Lions so it’s really special.
“(I) missed out on the last one and it’s been a fire in the belly to be around so there’s an opportunity there and it’s a massive event. Words don’t really do it justice for us but there’s a real buzz around what we’re doing
“What we’re talking about now is where we’ve been, where we’re going and where we want to get to before that Lions, there’s a lot of hard work.”
This week will mark the last time the Wallabies will get together before the Lions tour, with the squad making major improvements since the Spring Tour.
“It’s a huge year, you see guys come back in and sometimes not in great shape, there was none of that,” White remarked.
“…Guys are coming into that prime age and understanding (the importance) and also guys showing their hunger that we want to get better and go to a better place.
“A lot of that’s driven by this really disciplined head coach we’ve got that’s created this energy and environment where guys just want to get better and want to go to another level and again we really appreciate that.”
“We’ve got to go up to another level and the shape guys have come back in after five weeks off, you can see guys are hungry to want to go to that next step.
“We’ve just got to continue to do it and this camp’s about knowing that path and then over Super Rugby we’ve got to live it and hopefully we’ve done that and the guys are lucky enough to come back in and are in a position to go to that next step.”
