Thou shall not pass.
Tadhg Furlong in a number three jersey is a frightening nightmare for many a sportsman. On a Lions tour, in an Ireland strip and for Leinster, the idea of running into that brick wall would have any yard-gainers sitting on a toilet for a week before the game.
On the GAA field too though, that number three will haunt some full forwards forever.
Furlong has always had a huge sporting appetite and that famous clip of him playing for Horeswood in the under-14 Wexford county final of 2005 will live long in the memory.
Furlong played the whole way up to minors where he won a Division 5 hurling county title with the club where his team mate Declan Murphy describes Irish international at under-18 – “by that stage he was a massive, massive man.”
You can imagine the size of him but it wasn’t as if he wasn’t capable of playing some ball too.
“He was very tough, but he was a skilful player as well. He was quick for his size,” Murphy says.
“He was a very reliable lad to have on your team – if there was a man-marking job or something to do, he was the type of fella that you could rely on that he’d do a good job for you. Especially in big games as well, he was good for the big day too.”
Furlong is still a man for the big day – even more so.
In this just his second full season for Ireland, the Wexford native will go down in folklore as man of the match in the country’s third ever Grand Slam winning team.
But there are still some football forwards in his county recalling the day they tried to get around him.
Tadhg Furlong has always been an impassable number 3 👊 pic.twitter.com/d4n4oDrR6y
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) March 19, 2018
He was also a trophy winner with Wexford hurlers at underage level. Again, he donned the number three, again, the outcomes were as relentless.
Nice hook.
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