Tadhg Furlong still getting to grips with life in the fast lane

At first glance, it might seem Tadhg Furlong has lost the run of himself, trading in his Renault for a Jaguar. But that couldn't be further from the truth. The 24-year-old from Wexford farming stock remains the same grounded individual he's always been, not that he'd have any choice in the matter anyway.

“Look, to be honest with you, it just came about, the whole Jaguar thing. It’s just a local fella back home who went to my school, from the parish, who said: ‘Would I be interested?’ and I said: ‘Of course I would’. There’s not a whole lot else to it. It’s not as if I’m after changing my lifestyle or I’m after changing.”

“No, I don’t think so. Not at all. I don’t think you’d be allowed to either – do you know what I mean? In a place like this. Even the lads back home, they’d be first on your case. I absolutely don’t think so.”

The friendly neighbour cum ex-schoolmate is Barry Murphy at Trinity Motors (“he’ll be happy with that”), and although shifting a little uncomfortably when quizzed on his new wheels, Furlong feigned mock indignation when it was suggested he wasn’t a natural marketing fit for a Jaguar.

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“It’s called an F-PACE. It’s lovely,” said Furlong, who, nonetheless, stresses he was quite happy with his Renault jeep too.

Motoring along, so to speak, Furlong is a different animal on the pitch now than a year ago. This time last year he’d been in the squad through the World Cup warm-ups and tournament itself, but had made only three appearances off the bench.

Now, facing into what is likely to be his first Six Nations start, Furlong augmented his full Test debut in the second Test in South Africa with three big performances against the All Blacks (twice) and Australia in November.

Grand scheme

“I am a lot more experienced than I was if you were talking to me this time last year going into the Wales game. But in the grand scheme of things, I still have a lot to learn. That is natural for a 24-year-old tight-head.

“It is dangerous if you start thinking you have this whole thing figured out because I definitely don’t. With the experience – I still don’t have a massive amount of it compared to some of the lads – it breeds confidence that you know how it works. You know how training works. You know what’s required of you. Away from that, you can just focus on getting your role right, getting your job right.”

All changed, he admits, with that first Test start in Ellis Park.

“Yea, I was ticking along nicely. I took a lot of confidence from that South Africa tour. When you are coming in from the outside, you might come in for a game or two or just be training. To go from that to playing consistently, three games on the bounce, you learn a lot about yourself and your preparation, looking after your body.”

“The way Test matches are they take so much out of you physically, mentally, emotionally. It is building that up to a Test game and then there’s just that sudden spike and drop-off after it. It is about managing that, to pick it up off base level, eke your way into Test match week again. It is something that is tough and takes time to adjust to.

Summer tour

So impressive was Furlong’s emergence as a Test tight-head in November that he was regularly mentioned as a Lions contender, but despite last week’s head shots of all the players in the respective four home unions, and the presence of Warren Gatland as an interested onlooker in Ireland’s Carton House base yesterday, Furlong maintains the summer tour hasn’t entered his mind.

“Not at all. When you have weeks like this, it is a big enough occasion in itself. There is so much on your mind, so many things to get right. You don’t have time to think about anything else really. You have to have your body right, your details right leading into the match.”

Besides which, there’s the considerable and looming challenge of a chipper Scotland in their own lair this Saturday.

“They’re good,” says Furlong. “They take a lot to the scrum. Even though Zander Fagerson’s a pretty young tighthead he’s got a really good shape in there. The Munster lads know him pretty well having played against him a couple of times over the last few weeks and they said he’s very, very strong when he gets down there. So as a cornerstone for the scrum he’s very, very good.”

“You look at the back five they’re all big strong men, the second rows especially and as soon as that ball enters the scrum the have a very good snap. In the lineout they’re tall men and they’re very physical as well. They’re a really well-drilled team and it’s definitely an area we’re expecting them to take us on in and I suppose it throws down a challenge for our forward pack away from home.”