The hardest part with cancer is seeing it happen in front of your eyes

LEGEND FURLONG RECALLS LATE FATHER'S DEATH

- BY MICHAEL SCULLY

AWAY from the rugby, the travel, the injuries and the rehab, Tadhg Furlong has squeezed in a lot of life experience over the past 14 months.

There was another Six Nations success with Ireland last year that came just weeks after his beloved father James, passed away a year after his cancer diagnosis.

“I think it’s different with cancer,” said Furlong. “You nearly pre-mourn. So, it happens and it’s not a surprise. The hardest part is seeing it happen in front of your two eyes.

“I’m not saying it’s a relief when you pass away, it’s just, what did you expect to happen really? You see this coming, you see it happening and in some ways, for them, for their own sake, you’re kind of…they’re at peace.”

Furlong told the funeral mourners in Wexford that his father was a ‘loveable rogue’ who was ‘unbelievably happy in his own skin’, a trait that he himself is happy to have inherited.

“Yeah, definitely,” said the Campile man. “There’s certain things from both parents that you pick up on. That was something I respected about him.

“He wanted money for a pint and a box of fags and a horse race, but he didn’t really care either about what other people thought or the social circles or niceties.”

He recounts the story of how his dad spent a long haul trip to New Zealand. “I think he was the original raw dog,” laughed Furlong, referring to the social media trend. “That’s a long aul’ trip.

“I said to my mother, ‘how was the flight?’ and she started laughing. He watched that little plane on the screen the whole way over.”