With the beauty of gleaming hindsight, was there ever any doubt Tadhg Furlong would roll back the years for that first Test win over Australia? Holding up his side of the scrum, delivering pull-back passes, running hard lines to draw in defenders, playing scrum-half at rucks and mimicking Finn Russell with skip-passes to backline darters.
The 32-year-old reminded you what makes him such a fantastic player. It was not all perfect – he was fortunate not to see yellow after a high clear-out on Len Ikitau – but this was the Furlong the Aussies would have been fearing.
Keen Wallabies supporters have held that healthy apprehension since Furlong toured Australia with Joe Schmidt’s Ireland seven summers ago. The Wexford native had entered the world-class phase of his career and had played key roles in a drawn Lions series against New Zealand, Ireland’s historic wins over the Springboks and All Blacks, and Leinster’s Champions Cup triumph in Bilbao.
Joe Marler, who toured New Zealand with Furlong as a Lion, said of the tighthead: “I try and think of rugby sometimes as a fan and you go, ‘Well, look at that massive lump on the field that you just think is going to bend over and push’. But then he is also so comfortable on the ball, his work rate… the likes of him and Kyle Sinckler are just taking front-row play to another level.”
On Ireland’s 2018 tour to Australia, Furlong was back-up to Munster’s John Ryan for the first Test loss at Suncorp Stadium. Schmidt responded by making eight changes, bringing Furlong, Johnny Sexton, Cian Healy and Garry Ringrose into the starting line-up. Nearly every switch paid off, but none more emphatically than Furlong.
He was just a big, bloody spud-shifter. He was ridiculous back then.
Healy was well established with the Leinster team when he first scrummed down in training sessions against a confident, young tighthead living up to his ‘Jukebox’ nickname; Jukebox, because ‘the hits keep coming’. “Aw, he was just a big, bloody spud-shifter,” Healy told me. “He was ridiculous back then. Strong, young, unpolished and a brute.”
The Furlong who packed down for the second and third Tests against Australia had refined his set-piece skills and smoothened the edges. He was also using his raw, physical force, as Healy described it, in other areas of the pitch. Ireland levelled the series with a 26-21 victory and Furlong was named man of the match. He finished with 38 metres gained off 12 carries, a clean break, three defenders beaten, a crucial try, and was part of a dominant Irish front row.
“Tadhg Furlong was a complete game-changer for Ireland,” wrote Australian journalist Beth Newman. Fox Sport commentators would describe him as “a wrecking ball”, while the man himself summed up his team’s mindset. “In losing, your pride does get dented. We knew we had to man up physically today.”
When Furlong, alongside such insatiable athletes as Tom Curry, Ellis Genge and Tadhg Beirne, delivered a repeat dose, last Saturday, the Australians were not surprised. Matt Giteau and Adam Ashley-Cooper raved, on their entertaining podcast, about the Lions’ skip-passing, play-making tighthead. The locals expected this.
Ironically, the lack of training on this tour is great for my body because you come to the game fresh.
For Lions supporters, and the writers and ex-players who follow Andy Farrell’s side, it was more a case of hoping for his best. “I haven’t been playing a whole lot of rugby,” Furlong said after the Brisbane opener. “Ironically, the lack of training on this tour is great for my body because you come to the game fresh. Previously I would have had a lot of overload injuries. It’s nice to play rugby and get match-fit by playing rugby, two games a week.”
Prospective Lions XVs usually start coming out within 12 months of a tour. Once a Lions season gets underway, the teams and takes come at a torrent. Furlong would have featured in 95% of them, even when he missed the Autumn Nations Series. When the Test absences stretched into the 2025 Six Nations, many more Lions teams were committed to print, and social media, without the Leinster prop.
Will Stuart looked to have done enough with Bath and England to stake the strongest claim as Test starter. Zander Fagerson and Finlay Bealham also made decent cases. Chatting with Andrew Porter in Dublin before he flew out with the Lions, the loosehead spoke of how Furlong would have a fight on his hands to get Ireland’s number three jersey back. It was meant more as a compliment to Bealham than a slight on Furlong, but vocalising such thoughts, even as recently as 2023, would be sacrilege on Irish soil.
That is where we were at.
Farrell selected Furlong for his Lions squad based on faith, optimistic updates from Leinster, big-game experience and conversations with the man himself. Having struggled with injury lay-offs in three of the past five seasons, no-one knows his body better than the Campile man.
It would never have been the plan, 12, nine, six or three months out, but Furlong has essentially used the early weeks of his third Lions tour as pre-season. There were the training slogs in Dublin and Faro, positive minutes off the bench (against Argentina) then the shaky first start (against the Western Force). For Furlong, Farrell and scrum coach John Fogarty, though, they knew minutes under the belt were needed.
He is already the greatest Lions tighthead of the professional era. If the Jukebox can come up with another hit, when it truly counts, he would enter the conversation for best of all time.
Furlong is emulating another cult hero of Irish sport. As he reached his 30s, Paul McGrath’s chronic knee issues meant he sat out most training sessions, then rocked up on matchday and produced stellar displays. At the 1994 Fifa World Cup, McGrath also had a shoulder injury and was patched together for Ireland’s opening game against Italy. “I was under the weather, to be honest,” McGrath would admit to me, years later, “because my left shoulder had totally said ‘goodbye’ to me… I had said it to [manager] Jack Charlton about four months before the World Cup. Jack, Mick Byrne and Charlie O’Leary were all trying to get my left shoulder to work. But it was horrific.”
That Italy game was McGrath’s finest 90 minutes in a green jersey. Going up against Daniele Massaro, Roberto Baggio and Giuseppe Signori, McGrath made half a dozen interceptions and tackles, the same amount of clearing headers and blocked two goal-bound shots, as Ireland hung on to win 1-0 at Giants Stadium.
When it came to first Test selection, the pundits and experts were starting to come round. Out of 21 teams picked to face the Wallabies, by folks who know a fair bit about rugby, Furlong was starting tighthead in 18 of them. Jim Hamilton wanted Bealham, Danny Care backed Stuart and Ronan O’Gara agreed, but only because he prefers to finish games with his strongest team. O’Gara stressed Furlong and Dan Sheehan should be on for the endgame.
From all the players selected to start that first Test, Farrell’s biggest leaps of faith were in Furlong, Beirne and Curry. An avid football fan (Manchester City being his team), the head coach backed Furlong to come up big, like McGrath.
On the Thursday before that series opener, Furlong’s mother, Margaret, was in Brisbane at a special Lions ceremony to present his first Test jersey. It was a particularly poignant moment after the passing of his father, James, in late 2023.
Furlong, Beirne and Curry delivered with performances that bristled with intent and came up with vital moments at key times.
This Saturday, all three start again, but Australia will be determined to batter them back. For Furlong, it will be his eighth straight Test start. He is already the greatest Lions tighthead of the professional era. If the Jukebox can come up with another hit, when it truly counts, he would enter the conversation for best of all time.
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