Should this be his final Lions bow, Tadhg Furlong has signed his name among the greats

Back in the 2013-14 season, Joe Schmidt’s first as Ireland head coach, such was his shrewd judgment that it seemed worth asking him which a yet uncapped player had the potential to be a bolter for the 2015 World Cup. In other words, someone to watch closely.

Schmidt gave this some thought for a few seconds before he responded: “Tadhg Furlong.”

He had watched the tighthead play in the 2011 and 2012 Junior World Cups and in training with Leinster during his academy years, but injuries had prevented Schmidt from giving Furlong his Leinster debut.

After playing a dozen or so Division 1A AIL games for Clontarf, Furlong’s 2012-13 season was ended prematurely by a lacerated kidney sustained away to UL Bohemians, and the following season he had appendicitis.

He then made seven appearances for Leinster in the 2013-14 season before being promoted to their senior squad that summer, whereas under-20 team-mates had been making quicker strides in the pro ranks, namely Kieran Marmion, JJ Hanrahan, Stuart Olding, Luke Marshall, Andrew Conway and Craig Gilroy.

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But that made Schmidt’s answer all the more interesting. It prompted a request for an interview with Furlong, which was granted by Leinster, and took place in Browne’s Café in Sandymount on a sunny day in September 2014.

Coming from farming stock and New Ross RFC − as well as playing hurling and football with Horsewood − and then through the Leinster Youths system under the eye of Declan O’Brien, Furlong was a little different.

He was part of Wexford’s under-14 Tony Forristal Cup-winning hurling side but, as he put it back then: “My body shape probably lends more to rugby than it does to hurling. That’s just the fact of the matter.”

Tadhg Furlong at the Lions team hotel in Sydney ahead of the final Test against the Wallabies on Saturday. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

But rugby was also a strong part of his upbringing. His father James, who passed away in December 2023, played for New Ross before coaching the minis and various under-age sides, introduced Furlong to the game with the club’s under-8s.

Furlong had an easy-going, engaging freshness, as well as a self-deprecating humour which he’s retained to this day. Inevitably, his confidence has grown over the years but without a trace of cockiness or arrogance.

“It’s not the most travelled route,” he acknowledged back then. “I get called ‘Strawberry’ and a ‘Turnip Muncher’ and ‘Spud’, and everything under the sun by the lads,” he said, laughing. “Look, it’s where I’m from and I’m very proud of where I come from.”

Sure enough, less than a year later, the prescient Schmidt blooded Furlong in a couple of warm-up games against Wales and England before naming him in Ireland’s squad for the 2015 World Cup. Although Furlong only played one game off the bench, Ireland’s pool win over Romania, and memorably joked about learning positional play in the backfield while wearing a bib in training, the investment paid off handsomely.

Even if one is selective in judging a player to be ‘world-class’, Furlong has surely sealed his status in that category forever more by dint of starting his ninth successive Lions Test against the Wallabies in the series finale in Sydney’s Accor Stadium (kick-off 11am Irish time).

“I’d rather he wasn’t starting for the third Test in a row,” quipped Schmidt with a laugh at the Wallabies’ team hotel on Thursday, “because he’s such a gifted player and such a good character.”

The sentiments were real, because Schmidt couldn’t stop grinning broadly as he talked about his one-time tighthead.

Tadhg Furlong during the first Test against the Wallabies during the Lions 2025 tour of Australia. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

“I love guys like that, who really put everything into the game and he’s such a good character in the team. The first time I met him, he came in with his mum and dad, with Collie McEntee, who was coaching the Leinster academy. I was coaching there and he got brought into the office and introduced himself. He blocked the sun, briefly, and those shoulders haven’t got any smaller since.

“He’s certainly an impressive young man and a world-class player, so if he wants a day off on Saturday, I’d be happy to see that!”

So, what has made Furlong world-class?

“The first time he played a couple of Tests for us in Ireland, he found it tough, as young props often do. The first thing you realise is that this kid is resilient, he had a couple of injuries early on in his career. He got through those, then he got knocked back a couple of times early on, particularly at scrum. South Africa (2016) was a baptism of fire. Since then, he’s grown into a player who is multipurpose.

“I’ll never forget the deft little offload he gave to Bundee Aki to go through a gap to give CJ Stander a try at Twickenham,” recalled Schmidt of the St Patrick’s Day Grand Slam coronation in 2018.

“Those skills he has with the ball, his ability to carry himself, and he’s very good, quite dynamic in the defensive line.

Tadhg Furlong during the Lions' training camp in Jersey ahead of the 2021 tour of South Africa. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

“We (Ireland) were here, on tour, in 2018 and I remember David Pocock was just about to decide to get over the ball and Tadhg Furlong put him back a couple of metres from the ball. He’s a pretty well-rounded, literally well-rounded, character,” concluded Schmidt with another smile.

While he has won a second Grand Slam and a third Six Nations since, as well as five URC titles in a brilliant career with Leinster and Ireland, something about the British & Irish Lions red jersey brings out the best in Tadhg Furlong.

He had only broken into the Irish team for a season, starting nine Tests in total, when Warren Gatland included the then 24-year-old in the Lions squad for the 2017 tour to New Zealand.

In his second appearance, and first Lions start, Furlong and others laid down a marker in a 12-3 win over the Crusaders and sealed his Test place in a 32-10 win over the Maoris a week later. Speaking after the Crusaders win, Furlong said: “I’ll have that Lions number three jersey somewhere at home for the rest of my life.”

Looking back on his first Lions tour this week, Furlong admitted: “I was young and making my way through it all and learning it all. Gats backed me really. He backed Mako [Vunipola], myself and Jamie George through each of the Saturdays. I felt pressure from it. In a rugby country like New Zealand, there was pressure. I probably didn’t enjoy it socially as much as I should have, looking back.

Tadhg Furlong during the second Test against the Springboks during the 2021 Lions tour of South Africa. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho

“I think it’s all part of the journey. Whereas this one, it’s a great group of lads. I suppose I’m very familiar with the coaches. You feel more at ease. Obviously, I’ve gone on two (tours) and been around rugby a lot more. You feel more at ease. You feel more belonging straight from the start.”

This third Test will mark his 20th, and likely last, appearance in a Lions jersey. After last week’s dramatic series-clinching win at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, an emotional Furlong gave an insight into how much playing for the Lions means to him.

“The Lions has played a massive part in my career. Not so much me as a person but definitely as a rugby player. It’s shaped the way I play the game or think about the game. It’s a mad one. I know this Lions tour is going to be me kind of closing the book on the Lions and I don’t want it to end. It’s a great group.

“It’s a special thing being a Lion. We have a week left to enjoy it but I don’t want it to end, as much as I want to go home and see my family.”

As he draws level with Alun Wyn Jones and Dickie Jeeps, only four players in Lions history will have played more successive Tests than Furlong.

“It wasn’t something I overly thought of, or I didn’t know about either, to be honest with you,” he told a group of journalists on the first-floor balcony of the Lions’ team hotel. “I just wanted to try to get on tour and play rugby and see where it got me.

Tadhg Furlong poses for a selfie with fans after a game against the Crusaders during the 2017 tour of New Zealand. Photograph: Martin Hunter/Inpho

“But yeah, it is class to be up there. I remember when people were speculating whether I was going on the first Lions tour. I was young and you think of Lions players and you don’t see yourself there, to be mentioned in the same breath as them, and I probably feel the same way now.”

As calf and hamstring issues restricted Furlong to just seven appearances for Leinster and one for Ireland in what had hitherto been a frustrating season, this tour was constantly on his mind.

“You want it so badly. I think the cruel thing is when you go on one, you just want to go on more. You go on that first one and you take it all in.

“The second one is kind of like you want to perform and the third one you just want to appreciate it all because you don’t want it to pass you by.

“There was a stage this season where we were having conversations with medical staff. It’s like: ‘What is going on here? We need to nip this stuff in the bud’.”

And the red jersey has worked its magic on him again. The Lions scrum has been a huge weapon, while Furlong has looked like his old self with his familiar mix of leg-pumping carries and deft handling skills.

“The game has changed, definitely. Rugby was so different back then,” he said, reflecting on how he has had to evolve from being a one-out carrier into being more of a passer on the gainline. “It changed my game and it’s changed to a hybrid of all of them at the minute, I feel. So you try to change your game as the game changes.”

Tadhg Furlong during the second Test of the 2017 Lions tour of New Zealand. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

He laughs at the suggestion he could be a four-time Lion in New Zealand in four years’ time. “Just about to turn 37. Could you imagine?”

Which then, far from being a dead rubber, makes this third Test one of the most special occasions of Furlong’s career.

“You’re still playing for the Lions. It’s not hard to motivate yourself. My motivation is obvious. I’m not going to say I won’t, but I probably won’t play for the Lions again. It’s been very good to me. It’s been very good to my career. You want to play well in it.

“I’m leaving a lot of that emotional stuff behind us. Without being clinical about it, you want to give the best version of yourself to it. Sometimes the last memory is the lasting memory you have in a jersey. I want it to be a good one.”

Most Successive Lions Test Starts

15 Willie John McBride (1966-74)

12 Graham Price (1977-83)

10 Tony O’Reilly (1955-59)

10 RH Williams (1955-59)

9 Dickie Jeeps (1055-59)

9 Alun Wyn Jones (2013-2021)

*9 Tadhg Furlong (2017-present)

*8 Maro Itoje (2017-present)

*Including Wallabies v Lions third Test.

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