British and Irish Lions 2013: Dan Lydiate determined to make the most of shock selection for Australia tour "I haven't been the luckiest," he acknowledges, with some understatement. So I try not to look too far into the future, because I know through injuries that if you plan too much, nothing seems to happen. If the right opportunity comes along, you have to grasp it. We can be assured that the chance of his first British and Irish Lions cap, against Australia in Brisbane on June 22, is one that he will risk everything to seize. "It is up to me to repay the faith," Lydiate says. The hard work starts now. Fortified by the captaincy of fellow flanker Sam Warburton, his closest friend and room-mate on tour, he is poised to rekindle the irresistible partnership they created 12 months ago, until his fractured ankle brought another extended spell on the margins. I haven't played with the boy since last summer in Australia, but it is up to me to push for a Test jersey, reforming that dynamic we once had. He derives motivation from the remorseless rise of an even younger breed of Welsh Lion, swelling the principality's pride to 15 in total, in the form of luminous wings George North and Alex Cuthbert. "I forget how young these guys are," Lydiate says, smiling. It feels almost like a youth team when we are together but they do the business on the field. George and Alex are physical specimens, real brutes of men, but they have the mental skills to go with it. Lydiate is forged in the same mould, through the uncompromising tackling style he acquired from chasing down errant sheep at his parents" farm in Llandrindod Wells. Knowing Warren Gatland as I do, he always likes to choose the biggest, strongest, fittest team. In the training camps we can be sure it will be intense. For a Lions debutant, Lydiate remains steeped in its folklore, his face brightening at a particular recollection from his forerunners" last visit to Australia, in 2001. To this day, all I can remember is Scott Quinnell scoring his try at the Gabba in Brisbane. He just appeared to lie there for ages, smiling and nodding his head. He keenly covets such glory himself - "I would love to be the one going over for the tries," he concedes - but is content to stay the unheralded architect, while absorbing the peculiar rituals that a Lions tour brings. I was talking to Alun Wyn Jones, saying how weird it is that when the Lions come together, you have an Englishman singing Delilah. Already it is like an extended family. It is that common bond. Lydiate is more coy on his next club move. This weekend he will play his final game for Newport-Gwent Dragons, before embarking on a well-trodden path to join Racing Metro in the French league. He is due to complete his contract next week and appreciates that for all Wales's halcyon days at international level, the regional system is steadily being stripped of its finest assets. "Rugby is our national sport and when Wales play everyone comes to watch, but the success doesn't filter through to the regions," he says. Something needs to change at the grassroots. His cross-Channel hop springs, one feels, from his acute sense of time conspiring against him. It is a worrying reflection of the ravages of modern rugby when one in his mid-twenties should adopt this mindset, but Lydiate the Lion is adamant: "I broke my neck within weeks of coming into professional rugby, and it made me aware that no one is Superman, that no one is going to last forever. The way the game is going, careers are going to get shorter, so I have to carry on for as long as my body will hold out. While I am out there, I am going to go at it as hard as I can. After all, it is better to burn out than fade away. Dan Lydiate trains in Under Armour HeatGear Sonic Compression product for optimum performance. Visit www.underarmour.com.