Tadhg Furlong wants to make third Lions Test against Australia night to remember

Tadhg Furlong is determined to make Saturday’s third Test against Australia a night to remember knowing it will almost certainly be his farewell appearance for the British and Irish Lions.

While Furlong has refused to definitively rule himself out of a fourth tour, he accepts the Accor Stadium showdown is likely to be the final stop on a Lions odyssey that will be headlined by his nine consecutive Test starts.

When it was pointed out to him he will be 36 years old for the next tour to New Zealand, the Ireland prop replied: “Just about to turn 37. Could you imagine?

“My motivation is obvious. I’m not going to say I won’t….I probably won’t play for the Lions again.

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“The Lions have been very good to me. They’ve been very good to my career. You want to play well.

“I’m kind of leaving a lot of that emotional stuff behind, without being clinical about it. You want to give the best version of yourself to it.

“Sometimes the last memory is the lasting memory you have in a jersey. I want it to be a good one.”

Only seven other players have made nine successive Test starts and Furlong is the second to reach that mark in the professional era, a startling achievement for a tighthead who will return home as a Lions great. Willie John McBride heads the list with 15.

“It wasn’t something I overly thought of or knew about. I just wanted to try to get on tour and play rugby and see where it got me,” Furlong said.

“It’s class to be up there. When I was young and you think of Lions, you don’t see yourself there to be mentioned in the same breath as them – and I probably feel the same way now.”

Furlong’s first tour was as a 24-year-old to New Zealand in 2017 and his