The former Saracens second-row on concussion, his Lions hopes and the thrill of his new life with Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan

George Kruis’s thoughts had already turned to a possible move from Saracens, his club for more than a decade, when Japan hosted the Rugby World Cup in 2019. Although England were comfortably beaten in the final, Kruis, then approaching 30, had seen enough to convince him that the first chapter of his post-Sarries career would be written in Japan.

“I was dead set on it,” Kruis told the Guardian before an afternoon training session with his new club, Panasonic Wild Knights, in Japan’s professional Top League. “I’m driven by wanting to make new memories and experience new things. And this has blown that out of the water.”

Related: The Breakdown | 'It harks back to an old time': Read and Hooper relish Japan's Top League

Everything is a foot lower, which is something I’ve had to get used to when I wash the dishes or brush my teeth