Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The bigger they are, the harder Dem’ fall TADHG’S FOCUS ON STOPPING FRENCH PROP
TADHG FURLONG admits his “red line focus” must be on the judo moves of rising star Demba Bamba this week
The world-class tighthead (below) insists facing France’s emerging star is preoccupying his thoughts despite his club colleague Sean Cronin being axed from the Irish squad this week.
Bamba, who turns 21 on St Patrick’s Day, has made major strides in this Six Nations and is set for a mouthwatering front row scrum arm wrestle with Ireland star Furlong on Sunday in Dublin.
Brive prop Bamba came to international prominence last year as a stand-out part of the France under-20 side that won the Six Nations and the world championship before making his senior Test debut against Fiji last November.
What also intrigues Furlong is that Bamba has a judo background. He was a national champion at 14, before he committed full-time to rugby.
Furlong remarked: “He’s very young to be playing top-class rugby, but if you look at him he’s a very good athlete.
“Obviously I’ve seen snippets of him playing for France at the World Cup last year.
“He’s one of their young fellas through on that sort of crest of a wave – winning the World Cup, or those younger players coming though at Toulouse that are playing really well.
“God knows it’s not easy playing international rugby at that age and he’s doing well.
“If you look at him you’ll notice he’s a really good ball player. He’s quite dynamic, he did a bit of judo back in his day.
“There’s his footwork into contact, his winning of that initial sort of first contact.
“So it’s important when you do try tackle him that you get your body low and you get your two-man hit. He’s a hard man to stop.
“He looks like he knows what he is about, what he wants in the scrum.
“But look at the same time, he still is a young prop.
He’s a physical specimen of a man. But we just try to look after our own stuff ”.
Furlong’s
Leinster teammate
Cronin was axed from the Ireland squad this week to face
France after a disappointing lineout effort in Rome.
Ireland’s forward coach Simon Easterby insists that the decision to bring in Rob Herring for Cronin was made to add to the depth of experience in that role.
“When you’re talking about the lineout, there’s so much that goes into it,” said Furlong, speaking in defence of his team-mate. “The throw, the lift, the call, the movement, the speed, how we need to get set in the line-out, how we walk in, there’s a massive amount of stuff there. So it is tough.”
But Furlong accepts that what has happened to the Limerick man is part of the professional game. The 26-yearcoming old said:
“That’s always the case, isn’t it? You’re just trying to play as well as you can at the weekend. You have to work as hard as you can, train as hard as you can.
“I can’t control that (Cronin’s non-selection). What I can control is how I prepare and what I put out on the pitch at the weekend.
“You get on with your job. In match weeks you have to nail your stuff so early in the week, trying to ramp up for the weekend.
“You’re just trying to deal with what’s in front of you face a lot of the time and trying to get on with your work.
“Everything outside that is nearly wasted energy, thinking about it. It’s pretty much, ‘Boom! Red line focus’.