Italian prop hits out at “disrespectful” Tadhg Furlong memes
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Disrespectful.
There was a moment in Dublin last weekend that lit up social media within seconds.
At a second-half scrum in the Six Nations clash, Italy replacement Mirco Spagnolo got underneath Ireland’s Tadhg Furlong and drove the veteran tighthead up into the air.
The image – Furlong briefly lifted off his feet – spread fast. Then came the edits. The memes. The jokes. The captions about the British & Irish Lions star “getting his wings”.
But Spagnolo isn’t laughing.
Speaking to the media this week, the 22-year-old prop admitted he’s uncomfortable with how far the online reaction has gone.
“I’m sorry because I think it’s going a bit too far,” Spagnolo said.
“The video of the scrum is one thing, but I’m also seeing a lot of memes that I think are disrespectful. We’re talking about Furlong, a legend of the sport.”
It was a rare show of front-row solidarity in an era where everything becomes content within seconds.
The sporting element, Spagnolo understands. Italy’s scrum has been a point of pride in recent seasons, and getting the better of one of the most decorated tightheads of the modern era was always going to be highlighted.
“The sporting aspect is one thing, and I understand the desire to highlight the strength of our scrum,” he continued.
“But when you go beyond that and create memes to ridicule a prop who made rugby history, it’s not right.”
Furlong, a cornerstone of Ireland’s success over the past decade and a Lions Test starter, has built his reputation on dominance at the set-piece. For many, that fleeting image jarred precisely because it was so unusual.
But Spagnolo was keen to draw a line between celebrating Italy’s progress and mocking a player he clearly holds in high regard.
Front-rowers tend to understand each other better than most. They know how fine the margins are at scrum time — inches, angles, timing. One moment can be clipped and replayed endlessly, stripped of context and turned into a punchline.
Spagnolo’s message was simple: respect still matters.
In a tournament where narratives can shift in seconds, and social media often amplifies the extreme, the young Italian’s defence of his opposite number might not go viral.
But it might just say more than the meme ever could.
