Tadhg Furlong has run the gamut of emotions at the home of English rugby in his 11 seasons as a Test tighthead, from wide-eyed tourist to innocent rookie on the other side of the scrum and on to winning a Grand Slam. Yet through it all, the British & Irish Test Lion still remains awestruck by the Twickenham experience and the flabbergasting “size of this yoke”.
Furlong will on Saturday start his 83rd appearance for Ireland against England, continuing his comeback from the calf injury which ruled him out of the opening Guinness Six Nations round against France. He earned the second of his caps during a 2015 World Cup warm-match against the English, coming off the bench as loosehead cover for Jack McGrath, his 10 minutes as a replacement marking the end of what he describes as one of the most nerve-wracking few days of his life.
“That was my first game (at Twickenham), the 33-year-old said this week. “I was just trying to figure it all out.
“I’d never watched a game there. I think my auntie used to live over in London. 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 fresh enough stadium back then, I think.
“Yeah, looking up at 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 Millennium. Big game.
“It just has that thing about it, you know.”
Furlong’s memory was sparked by Tom O’Toole’s journey in the 2026 Guinness Six Nations across the front row from tighthead to loosehead. A half-time replacement for Thomas Clarkson against Italy last Saturday, Furlong was joined soon after by O’Toole’s entrance as Jeremy Loughman’s back-up. O’Toole resumes the role this weekend and the tighthead veteran is confident the Ulster prop will not make the same mistakes he made at Twickenham in August 2015.
“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.
“To be fair to Tom, he took to it…he was strong in the game when he came on, I thought. He’s obviously a big man, he’s obviously a tighthead, but it’s impressive how he took to it just in one week.”
The Italian pack made it a difficult afternoon for their hosts at Aviva Stadium and Furlong described a week of work-ons for the Irish scrummaging unit.
“We were negative three in the penalty count, so it was four penalties to them, one to us, a free kick each. Obviously, it was a disappointing result.
“Italy do have a very good scrum, to be fair to them. We saw what they did to South Africa in November, I thought they put them under massive pressure. We know that’s no mean feat!
“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.” Improvements will be necessary at scrum time if Ireland are to overcome another formidable pack in the form of England’s forwards on Saturday but question marks remain over Andy Farrell’s team’s ability to rescale the heights of 2022-23, when Furlong was part for a team that consistently topped the world rankings.
The current team is very much a work in progress, hampered by injuries and transitioning less experienced players into the frontline with a heavy defeat to France on the opening night of the championship adding further concern following November losses to New Zealand and South Africa.
Asked where he thought this Ireland team was in its development, Furlong was refreshingly honest.
“It’s hard to say,” he admitted. “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 with 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.”
