Sometimes the longest way around can indeed be the shortest way home, and Tadhg Furlong seems very much at home this season. At ease in the company he’s keeping and loving life in the No 3 jersey.
“It’s brilliant at the moment. I would be the first to say that I am getting a run on the back of misfortune for others with injuries, but I am getting an opportunity to put the hand up for the jersey on a regular basis and I hope that I amn’t doing too bad a job,” he says.
A nine-minute cameo against the Dragons last November was the start of his burgeoning Leinster career and by the end of the season he had 190 minutes in seven games, with three starts.
Already this year he has eclipsed last year’s figures, has a first Leinster try, a run-out in the Aviva against Munster and has made his European debut. “The season has gone well but I can’t rest of my laurels either. The thing about the step up is that once you get a taste for it, you want more and this week is a great example of that,” he says. “With Champions Cup week, everything goes up a notch. The Irish lads are back in, and there is a pep in their step. ENTHUSIASM “To be training with them and to see the intensity and the enthusiasm that they bring to it… to know that you are in the mix, that you are involved is brilliant.”
The 22-year-old has been involved at a higher level, too: an invitation to train with the Ireland squad was welcomed with open arms. “It was a nice surprise alright. I knew Greg (Peek) from his time here but I wouldn’t really have known Joe (Schmidt) that much as I was still in the Academy, when he was leaving Leinster,” he says. “So again it was a hugely beneficial learning experience for me to see how it is done elsewhere and to see how they drive things from an international point of view. Scrummaging against the other lads and training with them on a daily basis was brilliant, and again it just leaves you wanting more.” It could have been very different, though, for the Wexford man. At school, he attended one of the GAA powerhouses in Good Counsel and represented his county in hurling up until U-15. “I didn’t have the pace for the football,” he says modestly, but a recent YouTube clip of him playing underage for Horeswood GAA club would beg to differ.
His father James was a New Ross RFC man and when he wasn’t walking around with ash in hand, he was down in Southknock with an oval ball. “I suppose it was different in Wexford and my rugby education was a bit different in that I was able to concentrate on GAA with the school and then rugby with my club,” he explains. “It’s a huge GAA school. They won an U-16 All-Ireland hurling title recently in the ‘A’ grade and they are competing at the same level in the football. It’s great to see and to follow their progress. “But my dad played a lot in New Ross and coached there and I got involved early on. From there I got picked with the South-East representative side at U-17.1 played the Shane Horgan Cup, went on to Leinster Youths, then Irish Youths, the Leinster Sub-Academy and playing in the World Cup in Italy with the Irish U-20s. “That route is more common now, though, and you see more lads in the Leinster Academy who have followed a similar pathway and I think this is down to the Youths set-up – and huge credit to the work being done. “It has been refined and honed and there is a huge amount of talent out there in the club scene.”
It sounds relatively straightforward, a meteoric rise to the Leinster senior squad – but that couldn’t be further from the truth. “Yeah a labrum tear in my shoulder put me out for 27 weeks in the first year in the Academy. So that was my first season on hold,” Furlong recalls. “It was an open surgery of the shoulder as well so that isn’t a quick recovery. “During my second year in the Academy I was trucking along nicely until I lacerated my kidney playing for Clontarf in the AIL down in UL. Blindsided by a tackle, didn’t see it coming, fluke injury. “No surgery was needed this time but to recover properly I couldn’t do anything. No lifting, no running, nothing. Hugely frustrating because at least if you are rehabbing you are amongst the lads and around the place. So that was another 20 weeks out, but the building back up from that time off was slower.” And as if that wasn’t enough, he had to have his appendix removed at the start of his third season in the Academy.
Back to-back spells on the sideline towards the end of his time in the Leinster Academy raised some doubts in his mind, but the structures in place put him at ease. “I was young enough but already I had three seasons in the Academy written off nearly. But I have to give huge credit to the Academy coaches and to Girvan (Dempsey), Fogs (John Fogarty) and Hugh (Hogan) and the support they gave me,” he says. “They just gave me the reassurance to get the body right and that the rest would follow. So I did just that and took the opportunity to get the head into the books and I finished a degree in business in DCU, specialising in finance.”
On Sunday, though, he will face arguably his biggest test and a Harlequins front-row that contains England loosehead Joe Marler, their captain. “We are under no illusions. Their domestic form, as opposed to their Champions Cup form, are two very different propositions,” he warns. “They will have their internationals back like England captain Chris Robshaw and Mike Brown. They will be in great form after that win over Australia. “Joe Marler then will not be found wanting in the front-row. At such a young age of 23 or 24 to be club captain shows the regard they have for him, with others like Robshaw and Nick Easter around. “It’s probably the biggest test of the year but I can’t wait. It’s a huge two weeks but all the focus is on the first game in the Stoop, but we’ve trained well and we are good to go.”
The original article with Tadhg was published in the Leinster Rugby supplement, free every Friday with the Irish Independent