TADHG FURLONG REMEMBERS his first experience of Twickenham. It wasn’t a day where he had his boots on, putting his weight up against the English scrum. 

All of that would come later in life. The first time he stepped foot in the famous old stadium came as part of a Furlong family outing.

“I think my auntie used to live over in London,” Furlong recalls.

“We took the exotic trip over to London for our holidays one year. We went to Madame Tussauds of all places. We also went to Twickenham Stadium. We got a little tour of it.

“I have pictures of Twickenham. I remember just being flabbergasted with the size of this yoke. It would have been a fresh enough stadium back then, I think.

“Yeah, looking up in it. It’s just one of those stadiums. Like so many of the ones in the Six Nations where…it’s England and Twickenham, it’s a big game. Wales and the Millennium (Principality). Big game. It just has that thing about it.”

Furlong first played at Twickenham as a 22-year-old in 2015. A week after earning his Test debut against Wales, he came off the bench to play loosehead for the closing 11 minutes in a pre-World Cup warm-up game, having squeezed into Joe Schmidt’s final World Cup squad.

“I was just trying to figure it all out.

“The first scrum was blown up for a reset because I bound on top of the tighthead, which is the wrong way around. But that was one of the most nervous weeks of my life.”

Furlong first played at Twickenham in 2015.

Over a decade on, Furlong is now one of the senior players others turn to on weeks like this. The Leinster tighthead was not fit enough to feature in the Six Nations opener against France but returned off the bench against Italy last week. Tomorrow, he’s part of a core of experienced internationals restored to the Ireland team, with Jack Crowley, Jamison Gibson-Park, Tadhg Beirne and Josh van der Flier also coming back into the starting XV.

After an unconvincing start to this Six Nations, Farrell is leaning on experience for what is shaping up to be another testing afternoon. This feels like a transitionary period for Ireland, and Furlong says injuries and retirements feed into that sense as he weighs up where they currently stand.

“It’s hard to say. There’s obviously players missing, either through injury or through retirement. It changes the feel of the group a little bit I think. At the same time, I remember when we travelled off to Portugal and there was a load of new faces. I thought, jeez, this felt a bit different. I feel a little bit older out there.

“But I have to say, as the weeks went on, some of the younger players, or maybe players who have been brought back into camp, they really come out of their shell, maybe socially, definitely. But I think more so from a rugby point of view. It’s been great to see some of them push on a bit in training, but also get their chances in games.

“Where that leads us, the rest of the championship will tell that story. 

I kind of like where the group is going. I like where the road leads, if we can get there. I think there’s a lot of promise in that.”

The 33-year-old has had his own injury problems, which seriously limited his game time last year.

“I was like, where did this come from? I’m not sure anyone knows either.

“It was like, right, let’s just get this right. I think in the past, we would have had injury, and then we would have re-injured and re-injured and re-injured. It would have ended up a three-four week injury becomes a 12 or 13-week injury.

“Luckily, a lot of the work we’ve done previously has got us back on the pitch and in good fettle without re-injury.”

Furlong recovered to play all three summer Tests for the Lions, and has been available on a more consistent basis this season. The Wexford man started three of Ireland’s four November Tests and has also lined out six times for Leinster – something he only did eight times across all of 2024/25.

Furlong speaking to the media in Dublin this week. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

Back fit, he’s feeling fresh, but understands why some of his fellow Lions tourists have struggled for consistent runs of form this season.

Related Reads

'Sometimes people have nothing to lose and just rip in. We've seen that with Jack'

'He's made of the right stuff' - Farrell condemns 'disgusting' abuse aimed at Edogbo

Crowley and Van der Flier start for Ireland as Prendergast left out of 23 for Twickenham

“I don’t think it’s much of an excuse to be honest with you. It definitely puts strain on your body for some lads, I’d feel. Some lads play eight games on those tours, so it’s a lot of strain on them. Does that have a hangover? I’m not sure. I think the Irish system would get a good pre-season, etc. Granted, it was short this year and straight into rugby.

I think mentally, for some players, to get on the Lions is nearly like their pinnacle. Next thing, how do they get up for the next game, or how do they get up for this game or that game?

“Everything maybe seems insignificant the year after. Maybe they think they’re better than they are. It’s some of the experience I’ve had with people that have maybe dropped off after a Lions tour that I’ve seen. It could be physically, it could be mentally, it could be within them either, I think, to be honest with you.”

If Ireland are to win in Twickenham tomorrow, then surely the scrum needs to be more solid that it was against Italy. As the Azzurri pack put serious pressure on Ireland’s scrum, there was the rare sight of both Furlong and Dan Sheehan being ‘given their wings’.

“Obviously, we were disappointed. A lot of the fixes up are the simple stuff, like height, entry, angles, etc. But they did a good job of isolating two-on-ones in the scrum.

“Like, a lot of it is just trying to get yourself right is the truth,” Furlong adds.

“You can’t get someone to replicate what England do exactly either. So it’s a bit of on the fly and a bit of experience in the game. But a lot of the time you’re trying to do what your plan is in training and try to get that into the game. Because there’s no point in training and not putting it in (on matchday).”