The Saracens second row is gearing up to jet off on his first Lions tour and training alongside the best of the best in Dublin last week was an eye-opening experience for the 27-year-old – but one he savoured immensely.
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With players from all over Britain and Ireland combining their powers to face off against the All Blacks, Kruis believes that he and his new team-mates must marry together as soon as possible but putting in the hard yards has handed him the opportunity to feed off a plethora of world-class talent.
“It’s good. Training with the best players around; it’s exciting. It’s really exciting,” said Kruis.
“We had a really good blowout in the last training session for a few days, and competitiveness was right out there.
“They are the top, top quality players of the Northern Hemisphere and I think you can pick off people and try to learn.
“We’re just trying to build a culture in a short period of time and also build a team, so that means everyone having to help each other out when necessary and then, when it’s competitive, it’s competitive – there’s a fine balance.
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“I think it’s been challenging but it’s been good. There’s been a good balance of trying to push ourselves. You never want a training session to be perfect because then you’re not really learning.
“It’s been challenging but it’s been good at the same time.”
