Former Brighton College and Rugby star Marcus Smith will find out later this week if he done enough to earn a place in the British and Irish Lions squad for their Saturday’s crucial first Test against South Africa in Cape Town.

The 22-year-old (pictured) made his Lions debut on Saturday night in their 49-3 win over the Stormers, where he impressed setting-up fellow debutant Louis Rees-Zammit for a try, and also maintained a 100% success rate converting all seven of his attempts.

Head Coach Warren Gatland is set to announce his 23-man squad for the first Test on Thursday.

His options are improved by the near-clean bill of health, leaving Achilles injury-victim Russell as the only unavailable player.

But defence coach Steve Tandy admits there were plenty of tough decisions during their selection meeting on Sunday which lasted nearly two hours.

He said: “There are going to be massive decisions. There are going to be a lot of unlucky players.

“We had an initial selection meeting last night (Sunday) which was a long one, covering all bases, because a lot of people have put their hands up.

“It’s a great place for us as coaches to be.

“We were becoming clearer and clearer as we went along, but it was one of the toughest things I have ever been involved in because so many people have been putting their best foot forwards.

“In other tours maybe people have played themselves out of the Test match 23, whereas all of our boys have really put their hands up in and around performances and the way they’ve been training.

“There will be bitter disappointment, but I believe that in this squad there’s such a tight connection that everyone will be geared up to winning that first Test, whether you are in the 23 or not.

“You want to pick from a healthy group and from a group where ultimately everyone is putting their hand up for that selection because that shows the depth of the squad.

“Over the three Tests people will probably come in and out of the team and we’ll need that depth throughout the series.”