Furlong admits he still has to find his voice at Leinster
MUCH has been made of the impressive strength in depth in Leinster’s ranks, but in a squad bursting with talent, few are held in such high regard in the world game as Tadhg Furlong.
The Wexford native is a player that any side would love to have on their books, even earning the admiration of the notoriously difficult to please New Zealand media thanks to his stellar performances with the Lions, and his importance to the Irish cause was underlined with a bumper new central contract recently signed.
With all that in mind it is surprising to hear Furlong admit that not only is he not a member of the Blues’ leadership group — in fact, he isn’t a particularly vocal presence among the squad at all.
‘I always enjoyed the saying “look after your own shop” or “if it’s to be it’s up to me”, so a lot of the time I try to get my own ducks in a row and perform,’ said the 25-year-old.
‘I wouldn’t be massively vocal in team meetings or stuff like that, I just try to earn my stripes and work hard. Maybe down the track when you’re 27, 28, 29 you can maybe think about that but at the minute I’m happy enough to focus on myself and try to perform as best I can.’
Clearly, it is an approach that has served the tighthead well.
Furlong was widely praised as being one of the leading lights during last summer’s Lions tour of New Zealand, and while it might not have turned him into a vocal dressing-room leader, he points to other areas of his approach that have benefitted from that experience.
‘I think it gives you confidence,’ he continued. ‘You’re sharing knowledge and techniques and processes with people from other countries, coaches from other countries, and you get a different viewpoint on a lot of things.
‘It probably makes you take stock, it gives you stuff to think about and it pushes you on.’
Of course, it is not just brute force that the Campile man brings to the table, with Furlong also showcasing his impressive passing ability and soft hands-on more than one occasion this season.
It’s a trait that he credits to the Leinster coaching team, adding that he feels the province’s general handling ability is steadily improving under the watchful eye of Stuart Lancaster, who has helped employ an exciting, attacking brand of rugby since linking up with the Blues last year.
‘It’s across the board, the emphasis on skills and being able to handle a ball with confidence, that you are not sort of jittery trying to catch the thing, that you have the confidence to pluck the hands out to catch it and be comfortable is something we work on in training a fair bit.
‘Even within our gym sessions there are mini little skill blocks broken into sets. To progress as a rugby team and play the way we want to play it’s fundamentally important that the members of the pack are all comfortable with ball in hand.’
A win in Montpellier this weekend would see Leinster complete a clean sweep of victories in their Champions Cup Pool, and despite having already secured qualification with the 55-19 thrashing of Glasgow at the RDS, Furlong believes winning in France would be an important signal of intent.
‘Essentially it’s another game for the group, [but] looking at our history over the last few years, it’s a big thing for us, certainly something that motivates us to perform at the weekend. You can maybe say that we are after qualifying for a home quarter-final, we’re playing good stuff but it would be easy to switch off going into a week like this. The player group certainly doesn’t feel like that.’
The message is clear — Furlong and Leinster are out to make a statement.