Hogg eyes Lions role in 2017

Stuart Hogg has set his sights on a Lions Test cap in 2017

Stuart Hogg is making winning a full British and Irish Lions Test cap his main priority for the next four years after he was forced to take a seat in the stand for the tourists’ 2-1 series win Down Under this summer.

The 21-year-old Glasgow full-back was the youngest man in Warren Gatland’s squad for the victorious tour of Australia.

But the Scotland international was denied a place in the 23-man matchday line-up for any of the three Tests as Wales number 15 Leigh Halfpenny kicked the Lions towards their first series triumph in 16 years.

The team are not due to set sail again until their New Zealand tour in 2017, but Hogg will do everything he can to make sure his place is booked.

He said: “I had nothing to lose down there. I wasn’t expected to be in a starting position but in the end I played five of the 10 games.

“So I’m happy enough with how it went. Obviously I was disappointed not to be involved in the Test teams but when you are sitting behind the man (Halfpenny) who gets named man of the series, it takes a bit of the pain away.

“When the team was named for the last match of the tour and I found out I wasn’t going to play in the final Test, it just made me all the hungrier to be involved next time.

“It’s four years away and I’ll concentrate on Glasgow and Scotland until it comes around. But getting a Test slot is my main target.”

Hogg eyes Lions role in 2017