'I probably won’t': Tadhg Furlong admits brutal Lions truth

Tadhg Furlong is determined to make Saturday’s third Test against Australia a night to remember knowing it will almost certainly be his farewell appearance for the British and Irish Lions.

While Furlong has refused to definitively rule himself out of a fourth tour, he accepts the Accor Stadium showdown is likely to be the final stop on a Lions odyssey that will be headlined by his nine consecutive Test starts.

When it was pointed out to him he will be 36 years old for the next tour to New Zealand, the Ireland prop replied: “Just about to turn 37. Could you imagine?

“My motivation is obvious. I’m not going to say I won’t….I probably won’t play for the Lions again.

“The Lions have been very good to me. They’ve been very good to my career. You want to play well.

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“I’m kind of leaving a lot of that emotional stuff behind, 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.”

Only seven other players have made nine successive Test starts and Furlong is the second to reach that mark in the professional era, a startling achievement for a tighthead who will return home as a Lions great. Willie John McBride heads the list with 15.

“It wasn’t something I overly thought of or knew about. I just wanted to try to get on tour and play rugby and see where it got me,” Furlong said.

“It’s class to be up there. When I was young and you think of Lions, you don’t see yourself there to be mentioned in the same breath as them – and I probably feel the same way now.”

Furlong’s first tour was as a 24-year-old to New Zealand in 2017 and his development as a player in the intervening years has been significant.

“The game has changed, definitely. Rugby was so different back then. You’re around the corner, you’re just working hard and then the game got into one-out carriers and I found my mould there,” he said.

“Then the game changed to more of a pass and options at the line and that changed my game. At the minute it’s changed into a hybrid of all of them at the minute. You try to change your game as the game changes.”

The series was won with a game to spare following last Saturday’s 29-26 victory in Melbourne, posting the first successful tour since the 2013 visit to Australia.

“It’s such a hard thing to do and history tells you that. When you play for the Lions, you understand why, in terms of moulding everyone together and trying to get them on the same track, and the schedule and travel,” Furlong said.

“As an achievement, as a team, there’s not a massive body of work. You have eight weeks of work to show for it. It’s probably one of the more satisfying achievements that I’ve been a part of.”