Tadhg Furlong counting blessings to have two All Blacks scalps

Tadhg Furlong had never faced the All Blacks before last November. Fast forward nine months and the 24-year-old Irishman has beaten them twice in four meetings.

All four of those games this season have made an impression on the tighthead prop, a couple of them left their mark, but as Furlong prepares for a fifth exposure to the world’s best team in this Saturday’s third and series-deciding Test for the Lions, the Wexford man knows he is in a fortunate position.

“Yeah, I’m incredibly lucky. I’d refer back to when we were playing New Zealand in Chicago with Ireland and lads had lost to New Zealand five or six times and I’d never played against them. They’d talk about their experiences and what works and what doesn’t work.