JOSH VAN DER Flier admits he initially found it difficult to move on from Ireland’s Rugby World Cup disappointment, but he’s now looking forward to working with Leinster’s incoming World Cup winner, Jacques Nienaber.
Having featured prominently in the 2019 edition of the tournament, Wicklow man Van der Flier appeared off the bench in Ireland’s opening game against Romania at this year’s World Cup in France before subsequently returning to the starting line-up for the remainder of their campaign.
Just like four years earlier in Japan, however, van der Flier’s World Cup odyssey ended in a quarter-final defeat to New Zealand.
Yet as he prepares to make his return to the Leinster colours for this Saturday’s United Rugby Championship encounter with Scarlets at the RDS, the 2022 World Rugby Player of the Year is now ready to move forward.
“I imagine other lads were pretty similar: because it’s such a close game, you look back at every mistake you made or something you felt you could have done better,” van der Flier said of Ireland’s quarter-final exit to the All Blacks in France.
“It was definitely hard to move on from the World Cup I guess, especially because we had three weeks off straight afterwards.
The first week, you’re obviously in such a set schedule for three or four months, whatever it was. Then all of a sudden you’re back home, there’s no schedule, you haven’t readjusted your goals to work towards Leinster or whatever it is.
“You’re kind of in a bit of No Man’s Land, really. That was tricky, but I managed to get away for a week and that helped a lot, just to get away from everything rugby and anything resembling it.
“I think once the World Cup was over, then, once the final had happened, there was no feeling of, ‘Oh, we could be there if it had just gone our way.’ It was kind of just a line in the sand: ‘It’s over now, let’s move on.’ Then spent the last week and a half, two weeks, just really excited to get back in here.”
Van der Flier finds himself back in harness during a very busy period for Leinster.
Following this Saturday’s game, the Blues will have three interprovincial derbies (two against Munster and one against Connacht), as well as back-to-back European Champions Cup showdowns with La Rochelle and Sale Sharks, to negotiate before 2023 comes to an end.
By the time the calendar year reaches a conclusion, Jacques Nienaber will have settled into his new role as Leinster senior coach – taking over from the already-departed Stuart Lancaster.
In addition to being familiar with Nienaber from his previous stint on these shores with Munster, Van der Flier donned the number seven jersey for Ireland’s pool stage win over his South African charges at the World Cup.
Despite that loss, Nienaber signed off on his time as an international head coach in fine style as the Springboks secured the Webb Ellis Cup for a second time running courtesy of a final victory against New Zealand.
He was also involved in their successful 2019 World Cup campaign as an assistant coach and van der Flier is unsurprisingly enthused about the prospect of working alongside someone with such a strong pedigree.
“I spoke to a few of the Munster players about him, they speak incredibly highly about him. I said a brief hello to him after the South Africa game, when we played them.
“I don’t know if he might come in and say we’re defending the exact same way that South Africa do or he might like some of the stuff we do and change it, I’m not really sure,” van der Flier added.
It’s definitely exciting, looking at any of the teams he’s coached, the way they defend. It’s a pretty exciting way to defend, it’s quite aggressive and you’re definitely on the edge of your seat watching that defence.
“He obviously has his philosophy or things he finds works well, so it’s the experience he has and what he has achieved that says it all, really. Everyone will be listening hard and trying to soak in everything they can from him.”