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<\/p>\nTadhg Furlong was close to tears as he walked around the Melbourne Cricket Ground last Saturday night, savouring a 29-26 victory over Australia, a Test series win at the third time of asking and a love affair with the British & Irish Lions that was drawing to a close. Time spares no man; not even one of the greatest players of his generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a little bit emotional,\u201d the Ireland prop said. \u201cThe Lions has played a massive part in my career. It has shaped the way I play the game and think about the game. I know this Lions tour will be me closing the book on the Lions. I don\u2019t want it to end. It is a special thing to be a Lion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furlong, 32, was a rising star with fewer than 20 caps under his belt when he was picked for the 2017 tour to New Zealand. He had signalled his quality the previous autumn with breakthrough performances as Ireland defeated the All Blacks in Chicago, stood tall in a ferocious rematch at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin and then defeated Australia.<\/p>\n
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Furlong\u2019s displays in his early international career put him on the Lions plane to New Zealand in 2017<\/p>\n
NIALL CARSON\/PA WIRE<\/p>\n
A big-scrummaging Six Nations followed and Furlong\u2019s performance for the Lions in a 12-3 midweek victory over the Crusaders, whose pack boasted an All-Black tight five, earned him selection for the first Test.<\/p>\n
Eight years later, Furlong will bow out in Sydney on Saturday having started nine consecutive Tests across three tours \u2014 a remarkable feat for a tight-head prop. Only four men in 137 years of Lions history achieved a longer streak, led by Willie John McBride on 15, but none in the professional era. <\/p>\n
What makes it all the more impressive is that the Irishman has on this tour recaptured some of the eye-catching form that made him the best tight-head prop in the world after years of being held back by injuries.<\/p>\n
A demoralising succession of calf and hamstring tears felt to Furlong like death by a thousand cuts. In 2020, during the Covid lockdown, he had 12 setbacks with the same injury. At one stage Furlong had started to contemplate how he would consider his career if he was forced to retire. Proud but unfulfilled would have been the answer. <\/p>\n
This season has been no different. Furlong has played only eight games for Leinster and one for Ireland, only once managing to string together three matches on the bounce. The Lions was always a goal that kept driving him through those darker times. He made it to South Africa in 2021 and now to Australia. \u201cOnce you get to two years out this thing goes into your head,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Furlong, middle, and his captain Itoje, right, \u201cepitomise what it takes to be a top-level player\u201d according to head coach Farrell<\/p>\n
DAN SHERIDAN\/INPHO<\/p>\n
On this tour, including the send-off game in Dublin, Furlong will have played in seven of the ten matches, starting five. It was in the midweek game against the ACT Brumbies that we started to see flashes of Furlong at his best. He then delivered a vintage performance in the first Test.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, and it\u2019s been well documented how much he loves playing for the Lions,\u201d Andy Farrell, the head coach, said. \u201cOver the past year or 18 months, the continuity of his game and fitness . . . it just always happens that when this [the Lions] comes around, how much it means to him to get himself in the right frame of mind to be able to do what he\u2019s done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t just the performances that have been through the roof, it\u2019s also his manner on a Lions tour. I\u2019ve never seen him in such good spirits, so he\u2019s ready to go again.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Furlong and Itoje as rookies on the 2017 tour. The pair will further cement themselves into Lions history with their ninth successive Tests on Saturday<\/p>\n
DAN SHERIDAN\/INPHO\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n
It will also be Maro Itoje\u2019s ninth consecutive Lions Test, although the first of them in 2017 was off the bench. \u201cWell, look at the quality of player they are, look at the standing that they have with any group that they represent,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cThose two lads epitomise what it takes to be a top-level international player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furlong is one of the modern greats; an infectious character whose love of rugby is reflected in the vivacious way he plays. He nails the fundamentals of being a tight-head prop, and his dynamic and powerful carrying makes him a direct threat with the ball tucked under his arm.<\/p>\n
Over the years, he has also set standards for the position with his fluid catch-pass skills \u2014 even doing a mean impression of Finn Russell with a long, floaty ball off his left hand in the first Test. <\/p>\n
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