Confident Furlong wants first Lions series win

BBC News

a day ago

Tadhg Furlong has been there, done that and bought the T-shirt.The veteran prop was making his seventh test match start for the Lions and any doubts, anyone had, if he was worthy of his place after two seasons of stop-start rugby for Leinster and Ireland because of niggling injuries were dispelled as he produced a performance to match any in his stellar career.In 2017 Furlong was a member of the Lions squad that lost the first test in New Zealand but came back to win the second and tie the third.Four years later in South Africa, the Lions went 1-nil up before losing the series as the Springboks came roaring back.Furlong has experienced the physical and mental struggles of being ahead and behind in a three-match series and heading into the second test in Melbourne, he's unlikely to hop on an emotional rollercoaster.
'There's two sides of the coin,' explained Furlong.'Obviously it's on us that we don't get complacent and we learn the lessons.'We have a midweek game again. It's great to see the boys go out and see who puts their hands up. If the lads go well on Tuesday then it will put them in contention.'The other side of that is we know what it means to the Aussies.'The desperation is all in there for them next weekend.'Every series is different but some things remain the same no matter what.'There is a flow to it. The group is edgy. We don't know each other, we don't know the Australians and they don't know us and what it's actually like on the pitch.'You watch all the video. You do all your prep.'There's a realisation after that of what it takes and what it felt like in the game.'So there's a bit of an ebb and flow on it.'It's all about, as stupid as it sounds, just going again and trying to put your game out there.'There'll be tweaks and changes and nuances in the whole thing and a little bit of tit for tat,' he added.
Furlong was feeling so good on Saturday night that at one stage he threw a 20 metre pass with unerring accuracy, not always a props greatest strength.'A floaty one, he admitted.'I thought it was good. I know it was on penalty advantage but your confidence is there.'It was that kind of game where I was attacking well and getting through a few carries.'In some games you get ball and in some games you don't get ball.'I always like when you get a few carries and get into the game and you're feeling good.'I love seeing the ball moving forward. I thought the boys did a great job of that.'At the same time, we probably forced stuff as well.'We probably got a little bit giddy one off-floor, two off-floor and then we threw a speculative one or maybe we looked for an off-load too early.'I thought when we went through a few phases I thought we looked good.'On his third tour, Furlong has never missed a test match, all that's missing is being part of a series win.He'll get that chance in Melbourne on Saturday.