Lloyd reflects on fairytale debut

The 18-year-old former Clifton College pupil touched down three minutes from time in the season opener, applying the finishing touches to Luke Morahan’s scything outside break to send a capacity crowd into raptures.

And Lloyd, who says his initial selection came as a huge surprise, admitted the enormity of the occasion didn’t hit him until his big moment on 77 minutes.

“(Being selected) was very unexpected - I found out the day before everybody else found out to give me some time to prepare,” he said.

“I prepared for the week but was never expecting to play, so it gave me an extra day to process it. When I found out, I was so surprised and unbelievably happy.

“Originally, I was just going through the social media feeds and looking at the build-up for the game. I didn’t know if I’d get on, so I was trying to absorb everything and take it all in.

“I didn’t really notice anything around me until after the game. When I scored, I looked up and saw the crowd and that was when it hit me, but I was so focused and, in the zone, I didn’t notice the noise until that moment.

“It was a massive honour and a dream come true. It’s obviously nice to score, but the big thing for me was just getting on the pitch. My try was just finishing off what the boys had created.

“I try to play every game the same way and just enjoy it, that’s the reason I play, so I didn’t want to overthink things – I just wanted to play as well as possible.

“I’m taking every game as it comes. My main target was, and still is, to try and play as much Premiership rugby as possible – I want to play at the highest standard – but nothing is a given and all I can do is keeping working hard and training as well as I can.”