Tadhg Furlong has won pretty much everything in his career bar a World Cup. He’s been part of four Six Nations title winning sides, including two Grand Slams, and another Triple Crown in March, and momentous Irish wins, been a three-time Lions Test series ever-present and has won Pro14s, a URC title and a Champions Cup. That said, the last of those was when Leinster beat Racing 92 in 2018 in Bilbao.
There have been rivers of water under the bridge since then. One of six debutants in the win over Bath in January 2016 alongside Garry Ringrose and others, that 2018 triumph came in just his third Champions Cup campaign. And he’s known more big losses than any other Leinster player since, starting in all four final defeats while last season’s loss to Northampton was his second in a semi-final.
“Yeah, a lot of finals as well,” he reflects. “You can’t be hindered by the past either. Every year it’s a genuinely different group. I know a lot of the same faces there but it’s a different group and different coaching staffs. You can’t be hindered by the past or scared of it either.”
Hearing Furlong’s take on where Leinster are currently performing as they approach Saturday’s quarter-final against Sale Sharks at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 5.30pm) seems particularly relevant.
“We really dug it out there in between November and February, I thought we were working hard. Tough work. We’ve come back in now after Six Nations; Glasgow was a very disappointing result; Scarlets, high-octane game, came out with a win.
“Last week was the first time we had everyone back in the building and compared to the Scarlets’ week, it was a big week of growth for us, getting on the same page, ironing out a few things and getting cohesive together.
“I suppose the answer is in the postcard for Sunday, really, at where we’re at and where we’re getting to. It feels like we’re in a good place. It feels like we’re ready to push on and hungry to grow.”
Tadhg Furlong at Leinster Rugby training. Photograph: Andrew Conan/Inpho
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Furlong describes the 49-31 win over Edinburgh last Sunday as “a bit of a mad old game”, adding: “We were a bit more fluid in our attack in creating opportunities but sometimes you just get giddy. We probably forced it. I forced a pass. You think it’s on, but you maybe don’t have full control. If you get it away, you know what happens.
“I don’t think I’ve ever played in a game like that. I think I made one tackle. Fair play to Edinburgh where you throw an intercept, but they kind of read a lot of it. So yeah, it was a mad old game.”
Last Sunday was also typical of how the game has morphed again. There were 75 tries and 530 points scored in the eight round of 16 ties. The new emphasis on winning aerial duels and attacking off loose ball has added “that extra kind of ‘unstructuredness’ to the whole thing” as he puts it.
“It’s probably only the last year/year and a half and even the last three/four months it’s changed again. It’s just how teams are doing things. Everyone’s adapting and changing as you go, with not being able to block and run it back. There was a while there where just two people were going up for it and just scrum, scrum, scrum. Now it feels like slap-backs, and it makes it a bit looser on the ground.”
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Last weekend, during an interval break in one of the games, Furlong was scrolling through the channels where he came upon his first semi-final with Leinster, the 27-22 defeat to Clermont in Lyon.
“I looked at it and I was just plodding around. Attack, defence, set-piece. That was all you had to do. I was like: ‘Jesus Christ!’ And now as a front-row, (it’s) attack, defence, set-piece, attack, defence and then kick chase.
“You have to work as hard and there’s no excuse as a front-rower not to be around it or haring up or haring back. So, my workload has gone through the roof because of it. You have to be able to do everything nowadays.”
Sale Sharks’ George Ford (centre) passes the ball during the Investec Champions Cup round of sixteen match at Twickenham Stoop, London. Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA Wire
The lowest scoring game of last weekend, by a distance, was Sale’s 26-17 win at Harlequins, which was almost old school as they went 3-0, 6-0, 9-0 through the wily George Ford before winning through two tries off lineout mauls.
Furlong knows what to expect.
“Tough. Like, tough. I think they have a very good coaching staff there. (Alex) Sanderson has a good history in the competition,” says Furlong of the former Sale and England backrower who was an assistant coach in all three of Saracens’ Champions Cup triumphs.
“I’ve heard a lot of good stuff from Sale lads about him and his motivation. Mike Forshaw, he’s coming from Wales, an international coach, a northern man as well. They go good hard northern rugby, and they have a ‘10’ there that’s well able to control the game but also play a lot of ball if he wants to.
“So, that’s what we’re expecting. We’re expecting a proper hard game of rugby.”
And like Edinburgh, this is Sale’s last shot at silverware this season. They can give this a lash.
“They’re in the quarter-finals of Europe, why wouldn’t you give it everything you’ve got?” reasons Furlong. “It’s huge. It’s huge for us here in this club, but obviously it’s a massive opportunity for them as well. It’s knockout rugby.”