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"There was pizza on the ceiling!" - Irish star recounts Lions tour shocker

By Online Editors

Former Ireland outside back Luke Fitzgerald has recounted his hilarious experience with former Wales loosie Andy Powell during the 2009 Lions tour to South Africa.

Ahead of the final midweek game, Fitzgerald received a rude awakening from roommate Powell in the early hours of the morning.

"Great fun. He was the life and soul of the party. He was a great part of the tour even though he didn't play in the tests," Fitzgerald said on The Irish Independent's The Left Wing podcast.

"I had a big match ahead of the tests and I get woken up at about 4am. He knew he was out of the running. Lights go on, I ask him to turn off the lights because I was trying to sleep," he continued.

"In the morning I look up and there was a pizza on the ceiling. There was a pizza on the ceiling! I turn over and this was a period where some of the Welsh guys had been doing the fake tan stuff. This guy is huge, he is an unbelievable athlete. I turn over and there was his big, bare orange arse!

"I see the pizza and the big arse and I go into the toilet to brush my teeth. I take a step out of bed and I crunch down on crisps. They led all the way from the toilet to the side of my bed.

"He is one of those guys who you couldn't be mad at but I just said 'listen Powelly, I'm going to ask if I can move, we are on different schedules'."

Powell's antics have been well documented over the years. The back-rower was most notably arrested in 2010 after allegedly taking a golf cart from the Welsh team hotel and driving it towards a motorway after Wales' victory over Scotland in the Six Nations.