IF MINDSET SEPARATES champions from the rest, then Josh van der Flier is showcasing all the right signs.
At the age of 22 and fresh from the first two Champions Cup starts of his life, you might think the Leinster openside would be happy to have acquitted himself well.
Van der Flier (pronounced ‘van der Fleer’) is content to have notched two starts against three-time champions Toulon in the European competition, but he pushes himself towards higher goals. Despite having played opposite Steffon Armitage, one of the leading back rows in world rugby, the former Wesley College man feels he could have had a far greater impact.
“On a personal level I managed to get a good bit of work in, but I wouldn’t say I was dominating the game as much as they were,” says van der Flier.
I’d say the biggest thing I’d look at in terms of performance, you’d see who played better – your opposite number or you, and I’d say Armitage definitely played better the last couple of games, in my opinion anyway, so there’s a good bit of work to do.”
The fact that Armitage has three European medals, a handful of England caps and was a major talking point even at the World Cup he didn’t play in this year doesn’t impinge on van der Flier’s assessment of his performances in the past fortnight.
He is intent on reaching the same level that Armitage, David Pocock and the rest of the best in the world currently operate at.
“I’m trying to aim high to be honest, so I want to get to that stage eventually, hopefully where I’d be in Armitage’s position someday, so that’s kind of where I’m working towards.”
Van der Flier deflects direct questions about any hope for Ireland caps this season, despite his form having brought him firmly into contention for Joe Schmidt’s Six Nations squad. He’s focusing on Leinster, he says, but the ambition is clear.
Van der Flier’s expectation of himself that he should dominate games is hugely refreshing; he is far from a wide-eyed young player just happy to be along for the ride.
He feels this mindset is uniform across the batch of young Leinster players currently attempting to force their way into the first XV.
I think so, yeah,” says van der Flier. “It helped me a lot seeing the likes of Jack Conan, Jordi Murphy – they came from the academy straight in, playing a lot of senior games, and then getting on to the Ireland squad and stuff.
“I think once you see someone in your position doing that it just motivates you, shows you it can be done. It’s very motivating in that regard.”
Van der Flier, who played for the Ireland U20s in 2012 and 2013, says the past fortnight has been “bitter-sweet” for him, given that he has broken into Leinster’s European XV but the team has suffered back-to-back defeats.
The highlight in what is his season so far was the Pro12 victory over Ulster at the RDS last month, when the province won 8-3 and he earned the man-of-the-match award.
“It’s more exciting to win,” says the 22-year-old. “I’ve been happy enough with my own performance over the last while, but then when it doesn’t contribute towards a win it’s hard to be happy after the game, to be honest.”
While the defeats to Toulon have left a purely bitter taste, van der Flier recognises how much he has learned about the top-level game in such a short space of time.
Leinster coaches and fans can be excited about his quality and potential further improvement, but van der Flier himself is simply focusing in on the learnings he can take away from facing down Armitage and Toulon.
Steffon Armitage had an unbelievable performance against us on Saturday but he was also very good the week before, so I learned a lot from him just watching him on the pitch.
“I think it’s positioning. He reads the game really, really well. Watching him back on the video, you see him hovering in behind and he anticipates where the tackle is going to be. He’s right there. A lot of it is experience although I’m sure he’s worked really hard at it.
“In the academy you learn how to deal with a bigger lad running at you, you just have to go a lot lower. But then you never really know until you have to do it and someone like (Duane) Vermeulen picking off the back of the scrum. It’s a different experience from training, so it’s been really good and I’ve learned a lot.”
