Life can be “weird”, as George Furbank puts it, when you have announced you are leaving a club but have matches and trophies still to win, and are attempting to sign off in style.
The England back has daily reminders of this as he prepares to depart Northampton Saints at the season’s end. As Furbank poses for photographs by the Franklin’s Gardens pitch, Henry Pollock bounds by, loudly serenading him with The Mighty Quinn, the song they sing at the Twickenham Stoop, to reflect the fact that Furbank will soon be off to Harlequins.
Fin Smith, the fly half, is ribbing his close friend too, for swapping him for his namesake Marcus. It is all knockabout changing-room fun, but away from the jokes there is a lot to unpack around Furbank’s move, and what it means for him, Saints, Harlequins, England and the Gallagher Prem.
Furbank will join Harlequins at the end of the seasonHARLEQUINS
Having joined the club at 18, he will be departing aged 29. “I’m going to be pretty sad to leave this place. It’s all I’ve ever known and I’ve loved my time,” he says.
“It’s always new and interesting getting outside your comfort zone. I know exactly how everything works here; I wake up in the morning, get in my car and drive the same route every morning. It’s going to be very different.
“Ultimately you’re going into a rugby environment, but I’m going to have a lot to learn in terms of the way they want to play, all the play calls and stuff. I don’t know if I see it as a challenge, but more of an opportunity and something I’m excited for.
Furbank has become a fan favourite during more than a decade at Northampton instagram
“You spend that long with a group of guys and you become pretty close. It’s literally an open door for most of the guys who live close to each other. I’ll miss the boys the most, but I’m not going that far away. But the weirdest thing is going to be coming back here. It’ll be bizarre playing against all these lot.”
Of course Furbank will pitch this as an exciting new venture. He hopes he can help give Harlequins “a new lease of life” after a shocking season, in which they sit second-bottom in the Prem, using lessons from how Northampton rose from also-rans to league champions in 2024. He is excited to develop his skills in another attacking team, and work with a new Smith too, as soon as he has worked out where to live.
Furbank’s departure will help the club retain younger internationals such as Pollock, left Dan Mullan/Getty
“I’ll probably need to get on to that at some point,” Furbank says, with a wry smile. “I’m in the process of selling my house, and the person is going to want to move in [before Furbank finds a new place] so I could be homeless for a little bit. I could do with getting an England tour this summer and then sort something out! I’ll be sofa-hopping otherwise. My missus lives in Brixton so I’ll be a little bit closer to her, which she’ll be buzzing with.”
Yet the reality on both sides here is financial. Saints do not pay to the limit of the league’s £6.4million salary cap — their wage bill sits them in mid-table, which makes their continued successes even more impressive — so have to make harsh retention decisions.
In recent seasons they have had to cut Lewis Ludlam, Courtney Lawes and now Furbank, three club captains, to keep their younger English core of Smith, Alex Mitchell, Fraser Dingwall and Pollock. Furbank’s age, and injury profile, meant they could not offer him the length or level of contract he wanted. So, to look after his own career and future, he had to leave.
Furbank is confident he will not lose any “connectivity” with his England club-matesShutterstock
“It’s the pros and cons of being part of a good team, I guess,” Furbank says. “You want to be in a team that is very successful and wins stuff. So far we’re having a good season, and obviously I’d love to finish with a trophy here.
“But that also means a lot of lads are playing well. A lot of lads are going on to international recognition and a lot of lads demand more money because that’s how rugby works. I was pretty aware of that going into contract negotiations. There was never a reality where everyone stays together.”
As Furbank goes on to point out, the bigger picture is that Pollock and Alex Coles were afforded their chances when Lawes and Ludlam left, and his departure will help George Hendy and James Pater develop as back-three options.
“You’re constantly trying to produce talent because you know you’re going to get to a really good squad stage, and then you’ve got to cut a few boys off. That’s a big pro of it,” Furbank says, citing the fine work of Mark Hopley, Northampton’s head of academy, and Charlie Reed, the under-18s coach, who groove Saints’ next generation.
But while the Prem’s salary restrictions bring competitive balance to the league — which has had six winners in as many years — it does not help to build dynastical sides, like Toulouse and Leinster are in France and Ireland, with healthier budgets and teams stacked with internationals.
“There’s no other way around it, ultimately, until you get big investors all coming into rugby and that might change things,” Furbank reflects, having fallen short of winning the Champions Cup, losing 28-20 to Bordeaux Bègles in the final last year.
The 29-year-old is determined to soak up every last minute of life in the East Midlands
“But you don’t want a divide where you’ve got half the teams who have got these multibillionaire owners who can pump their squads, and the others left behind. There even is that to an extent here, where you do have the very rich owners who are able to pump money in, and that helps you be better, but it’s ultimately not the be-all and end-all, which is quite a good thing.”
Another element that comes with leaving Northampton is the potential of Furbank losing his near-telepathic connection with his England club-mates. He hopes that will not be an issue that comes into Steve Borthwick’s future national-team selections.
“I’m hoping I won’t lose any of that connectivity,” Furbank says. “I’m hoping that’s a bit ingrained in me now.”
Furbank has had a curious England career. He has won 14 caps in six years, since a debut in 2020 against France that he has subsequently admitted he was not ready for. Arm breaks, hamstring issues and concussions have hindered him, but many see him as the best English full back available. Borthwick felt otherwise in the Six Nations, where England finished fifth, with only one win.
“I felt like I trained reasonably well and would have loved a shot, but a lot of boys were also in that same boat,” Furbank says, having been fit, but not picked, in the Six Nations, where Freddie Steward and Elliot Daly were preferred. “There were mixed feelings. I was excited to be back in that squad, but it was frustrating not to get a bit of an opportunity towards the end. I’m desperate to be in a World Cup squad.”
He supports the retention of Borthwick — he calls him “a brilliant coach and a good man-manager” — and dreams of being part of an England team that can take a brave game to the Springboks in Johannesburg on July 4, their next Test. “I have full trust in Steve that he’s going to give us a game plan to go and do that,” Furbank adds, admitting that selection is “a bit out of my control”.
For now he is determined to love every last second at Saints, starting with what promises to be a feisty East Midlands derby against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road on Saturday. It pitches Saints in top against Tigers in third — a clash of two of the league’s slickest back lines.
“They’ve got players who are just in unbelievable form like [fly half] Billy Searle, who’s controlling things. He’s probably been my player of the season so far,” Furbank says. “Then Fred [Steward] at the back, who’s a big aerial threat and his running game is coming alive, and [Adam] Radwan on the wing — you can’t give him any space. He’s gone.”
A few hundred hardy Saints supporters will sit in a designated away section on Saturday, in the area Tigers always reserve for Northampton fans on derby day, amusingly chosen as block “FU”.
Furbank loves the away zone idea, to drive more tribalism and atmosphere in the Prem.
“It just creates a really good atmosphere,” he says. “I don’t think it’s going to create hostility in the way that it has with football. Although they’re in the gods, apparently, so it ruins it slightly.”
Fin Smith and Furbank bathe in glory after Northampton’s 2024 Premiership success
But if he scores the winner on Saturday he will not be actively lauding it over Leicester — like Emmanuel Adebayor did when he swapped Arsenal for Manchester City in 2009, and ran the length of the Etihad Stadium to rile his old supporters.
“That was brilliant. Genius,” Furbank says, laughing at the suggestion. “That would go down well at Welford Road, wouldn’t it? You’d have pies and pasties thrown at you!”
Although you suspect that if Furbank did this, to help secure a precious derby-day victory, it would rubber-stamp him as one of Saints’ favourite sons, even if he has to leave.
Leicester Tigers v Northampton Saints
Gallagher Prem, Welford Road
Saturday, 3.05pm
TV ITV 4, TNT Sports 1