Monster boot.

Back in 2017 in New Zealand, the boot of Elliot Daly proved to be one of the Lions’ biggest weapons, with the England international sinking some incredibly important penalties from mammoth distances.

Test match rugby is often decided by small margins with Daly’s kicking set to potentially come into play again this time around in South Africa, and judging by the distances he’s hitting in practice – it could be even more important against the Springboks.

And it’s not just Daly who’s benefitting from being at altitude. Scotland captain Stuart Hogg is also renowned for having a monster boot on him and the pair have been pushing each other all the way.

Speaking today ahead of the Sharks game on Wednesday, Daly revealed he and Hogg have been sinking penalties from as far as 65 metres out in training!

“The altitude makes a difference, definitely,” Daly said.

“You’re able to take it back five or ten metres pretty easily.

“It’s not just affecting kicking, it’s affecting catching as well for the wingers and the fullbacks, the ball’s travelling a bit differently. It’s good that we’re training at altitude on a day-to-day basis just to get used to that so when we get into games it’s not a shock.

“Me and Hoggy are pushing pretty close to each other at the moment.

“It does fly a lot further, you think you’re a lot further out, the ball just seems to keep on going!

“When you’re that far back you need to make sure that you don’t really try and ‘whack it’ if that makes sense? You just need to back the distance that you’ve got.

“Then you just need to get the strike right – if you get the strike right then it’s got a chance of going over. You try not to change anything.

“We’re looking at around the 60-65 metre mark but we’ll see going into the Test matches.”

In terms of Test selection, Daly isn’t sure if this will help his case, but he’s not worried about it.

“Maybe?” Daly said.

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but what I’m thinking about at the moment is my performances in games.

“So obviously in training I just want to put my best foot forward and do as much as I can.”