British and Irish Lions Recollections: Alex Cuthbert on going from university second string to 2013 Test Lion in two years

"Alex Cuthbert! Can there be a better feeling than that for the young man? Bold and powerful again, and for Lions supporters, beautiful too."

The enduring words of Sky Sports commentator Miles Harrison the last time the British and Irish Lions toured Australia in 2013, when a fresh-faced 23-year-old Cuthbert powered and slalomed his way through for a stunning try in the opening Test - the decisive score in a vital 23-21 victory.

The Lions have existed as an invitational team at the apex of the sport of rugby union since 1888, and in 137 years of touring against the southern hemisphere's best, only 124 people have scored Test tries in New Zealand, South Africa or Australia.

Of those, 42 have been Welsh, while 35 players from Britain and Ireland have scored Lions Test tries in Australia. In human history, only 18 Welshman have scored for the Lions against the Wallabies. Cuthbert is part of an extremely exclusive club.

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Yet just two years prior to accomplishing what so few do in his sport, Cuthbert was playing for the seconds of Cardiff Met University. He didn't make his professional debut at any level until September 2011 for Cardiff - 21 months before the opening Lions Test of 2013 - and says he watched the previous Lions tour vs South Africa in 2009 at a sevens tournament in Bath having played for a team called the Marauders in front of next to no onlookers.

As meteoric rises go, Cuthbert's was phenomenal. "It was pretty berserk," he tells Sky Sports in the year the Lions will return to Australia.

"I was 19 when I first played for Wales Sevens, was signed to the Cardiff academy, and in my second year, when I was 21, I got called up to the senior team. Two months later I played against Australia for my first Test in Shane Williams' last.

"We won the Grand Slam in 2012, I scored the winning try against France. The next year we won the Championship, I scored two tries against England, then I played for the Lions and won a series. It was mad.

"I never really stood still to think about what I was doing. It was just, 'I guess this is what you do, isn't it? If I keep doing what I'm doing, this is going to just keep going.' That's probably why I ended up doing so well. I didn't think too much, I was free in games.

"It got me to the point of achieving so quickly. When I think about it now, it's unbelievable.

"I don't know how many times that would have happened to people but it was an amazing experience. I've got no regrets. I've achieved an awful lot in my rugby career and the Lions is probably always going to be the top."

'Nothing as emotionally high as feeling of making a Lions tour'

Cuthbert exploded onto the scene as an athletic, forceful winger with deceptive pace. At 6'5", he was a hugely physical specimen in the backline and defences struggled to contain his direct running and yearn for tries.

His route into rugby was unconventional too. The eldest of two boys, Cuthbert admits that, though his father played rugby, he didn't take the sport seriously himself until his late teens. Rather, he had an athletics background, in addition to horse riding, football and triathlons. Rugby only came after.

But by March 2013, the zenith of Cuthbert's Wales days arrived in just his 18th cap, scoring two dramatic second-half tries on the day Wales needed to beat a Grand Slam-chasing England in Cardiff by more than seven points to steal the Six Nations title.

Wales streaked to a remarkable 30-3 victory and Cuthbert reveals he produced the display of his life with a grade-two hamstring tear from the 30th minute - an injury bad enough to keep him out until the Lions tour three months later.

Warren Gatland, the man who gave Cuthbert his Test debut, was in charge of the Lions for the first time in 2013, but even still, the wing was caught by a wave of emotion when he heard of his inclusion sat among his Cardiff team-mates.

"I was one of the first names out because it went alphabetically. I just couldn't believe it.

"I thought straightaway about how everything had happened so quickly. All within two years of playing professional rugby.

"It was the highest moment of my career. Being in the team room and my name being announced, I don't think you're going to get anything as emotionally high as that. It's the pinnacle. It has to be.

"I remember going out to the car park to ring my dad and I completely forgot he would have been watching on TV as well. He was waiting for me to call him. It was just one of those real emotional calls.

"If anyone asked me, 'what game put you on tour?', I'd have to say the England game. I don't know how I did it, my hamstring was hanging off. I was lucky not to rip it completely and be out of the tour.

"When everything calmed down the next day, my hammy was screaming. It was just pure adrenaline and the atmosphere got me through. It's the best atmosphere I've ever been involved in."

'I was riding a wave and wasn't scared at all - Lions support was wild'

Heading on tour, Cuthbert was competing with compatriot George North, Ireland's Tommy Bowe and Simon Zebo and Scotland's Sean Maitland for two starting spots in the first Test.

When Bowe broke his hand after the third tour game, Cuthbert's chances went up exponentially, but he was still far from convinced.

"Tommy being injured may have given me more hope but I wasn't sure. When Gatland announced it, it was trying to keep my emotions in check.

"I was really looking forward to it, wasn't nervous or anything. It was more a shock seeing my name pop up on screen.

"All week doing the press, you realise how big the Lions is. Everywhere we went, there was a sea of red. The day of the game was crazy, the amount of fans cheering us onto the bus, into the stadium. It was wild.

"You look around at who you're with and you know this is the pinnacle. Alun Wyn Jones, Paul O'Connell, Brian O'Driscoll, Johnny Sexton. All these top players and I was thinking, 'two years ago I was a university player'.

"I wasn't scared at all. I was so young and new coming into international rugby, I was just riding a wave. I was so confident, not arrogant, but confident in myself. I'd do anything."

Eight minutes into the second half of that Brisbane Test at Suncorp Stadium, Cuthbert's eternal Lions moment arrived.

Having looped round from his right wing, he took a Sexton pass on the run to accelerate past Michael Hooper and then leave James O'Connor, Kurtley Beale and Will Genia in his trail as each defender managed only a fleeting grab. The Welshman was soon enveloped by Lions team-mates.

"I see that try everywhere," Cuthbert says. "YouTube, Instagram, I get sent it, I'm tagged in it probably once a week! It's stuck with me forever.

"It was perfect timing, a great pass by Sexton and I was straight through. It was one of those where I knew if I got past the first one, I was in. I didn't look anywhere else.

"It went like slow motion and then everything just hits you: the atmosphere, knowing the importance of the try, it was some feeling. Probably my favourite."

'I left the tour feeling aggrieved - Lions Test selections are ruthless'

From that ultimate high, Bowe's miraculous recovery - working overtime with a surgeon and physio to come back from a six-to-eight week injury in just three weeks - saw Gatland demonstrate the ruthless nature of Lions selection.

His overjoyed try-scorer was benched and failed to come on as the Lions lost the second Test by a single point. For the third Test decider, Cuthbert was left out entirely - something virtually impossible to foresee a fortnight earlier.

"I came back from that tour gutted not to be involved in the later Tests. Warren went with Tommy Bowe's experience.

"Now I look back, it was probably a decision that was pretty obvious at the time but I felt like I was playing the best rugby I've ever played in terms of my finishing and how I was hitting onto the ball and the tries I was scoring.

"I felt aggrieved and spoke to Warren about it. That's the thing people don't realise: it's all well and good getting selected for the squad, which is amazing, but it's getting in that Test 23.

"You're going there thinking you're the best but, in theory, you're just the best in Wales. It's fierce competition.

"I had an opportunity for that first Test and felt like I'd done enough. It's ruthless.

"It was funny because I was rooming with Tommy and after the first Test I was buzzing. I've obviously got a good chance to be able to start again in the second. Tommy ended up actually training on the Monday and I knew straight away, 'I'm in trouble. He could be in for my spot here'.

"I learned a lot from Tommy and he was a real good lad about it and it worked out. We were there to win it and I'm not selfish like that. That's what we all wanted and we ended up achieving.

"I was glad I was part of a game that will be remembered and scoring the winning try, that's probably one of the overriding memories."

His advice for the Lions of 2025? Take it all in.

"You can get caught up sometimes in professional rugby where you're just really focussed and don't see the bigger picture. You don't really enjoy it.

"I'd say to the players, 'really buy into the Lions experience'. I did and I had the best two months of my life.

"It's everything for me really. My goal was to announce myself on that stage. To be part of a winning series, it's something I'll always remember."

(c) Sky Sports 2025: British and Irish Lions Recollections: Alex Cuthbert on going from university second string to 2013 Test Lion in two years