Friday 7 July 2017 07:07, UK
Lions fly-half Johnny Sexton is relishing Saturday's Test decider against the All Blacks, saying it is a "once-in-a-lifetime-chance" that should be treasured.
The Lions can clinch just their second-ever Test series win in New Zealand with victory on Saturday, but to do so Warren Gatland's men have the unenviable task of ending the All Blacks' 37-match winning streak at Eden Park.
The Ireland fly-half is in charge of directing the Lions' back-line in tandem with England playmaker Owen Farrell in Auckland on Saturday, and insisted nerves must be dealt with in the face of history.
"I struggle sometimes with the nerves but this is once-in-a-lifetime stuff, so you have to treasure it," said Sexton.
"Potentially it's your last in a Lions shirt as you don't know what is down the line.
"You try and control the nerves the best you can and use them to your advantage. If you weren't nervous I would be pretty worried.
"It's down to the last game - two different sides and we are playing against the World Cup winners, but we are a better Lions side than four years ago."
Sexton and Farrell formed an impressive partnership in the second Test victory last Saturday, and the 31-year-old Leinsterman added he has full faith in his partnership with Farrell but insisted they must raise their level against an agitated All Blacks side.
"I've really enjoyed playing alongside Owen, it's great to have someone feeding in good information," he said.
"At times last week he was first receiver and I was pushed out so that was good. We get on really well off the pitch, which helps, and hopefully we can improve again for Saturday and we need to.
"We showed glimpses of what we can do last week, so we're pretty excited to see where it all gets us.
"But we aren't getting ahead of ourselves, we know we won against 14 men and we made things tough for ourselves at the start of the second half.
"We need to match them first and after that find another way to beat them.
"They will be hurting after losing, they don't lose too often so they will be hurting. We need to match it.
"Match them in the first 10, 20 minutes and then impose ourselves on them."
