Joe Marler still isn't sure if Tadhg Furlong was pulling his leg when he told the English prop that he was a truffle farmer!
The pair could come face to face in front row battle at Twickenham on Saturday, when Ireland take on the Red Rose on their home patch in the Six Nations.
Marler admits to being a massive fan of the world-class Wexford loosehead, and they got to know each other on the Lions tour to New Zealand five years ago.
But he could find himself as bamboozled on the Twickenham pitch as he was by Furlong's claim regarding the family farm in Campile.
"I'm still trying to work it out, but he told me on that tour in 2017 that he is a truffle pig farmer and to this day I have still not worked out if he was trying to pull my leg or not," said Marler. "Do you use pigs for truffles?
"Then in terms of the stuff on the pitch, he is world class. I think he has actually stepped up his game around the field, particularly in an attack even more so this season.
"You have seen in this tournament that he is standing more at second and third receiver off the 10, so they are doing a lot of playmaking through him and he is just so comfortable on the ball.
"I try and think of it sometimes as a fan and you go, well, look at that massive lump on the field that you just think is going to bend over and push.
"But then he is also so comfortable on the ball, his work rate, and it’s really good to see as a fan that he is, not ahead of the game, but the likes of him and Kyle Sinckler are just taking front-row play to another level."
Former Ireland head coach Eddie O'Sullivan predicts that the clash will be like a 'bar room brawl'.
That was put to Marler, who responded: "I'm trying to think of the last bar room brawl I was in.
"Is it going to be like that? It's going to be tasty.
"They are very, very aggressive at the breakdown. They love chucking numbers in there.
"I think off the top of my head you get 40 plus attempts at attacking our breakdown from Ireland. It is going to be a ding dong.
"Did you say that was Eddie O’Sullivan who said that? It is probably a fair assumption. I quite like that.
"A nice clean bar brawl though, none of the dirty stuff. No gouging or glass throwing. Just the clean stuff."
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