THE MINUTES AFTER Arthur Retiere’s late try shattered Leinster’s Champions Cup dreams last season presented Josh van der Flier with one of the strangest moments of his career.
As the La Rochelle squad celebrated the club’s first major trophy, Van der Flier was brought to the sideline and presented with the EPCR European Player of the Year award, an accolade he couldn’t quite appreciate given the circumstances.
“It was very strange,” says Van der Flier.
“I was obviously incredibly disappointed but it was a nice personal accolade to get that looking back, I’m proud of, but you’d obviously trade anything to have a medal rather than an award like that.”
Tomorrow, Leinster get another shot at landing the trophy and once again, it’s La Rochelle standing in their way. Van der Flier, 30, heads into the game enjoying some of the best form of his career – following that EPCR award by landing the World Player of the Year gong.
The flanker isn’t short on motivation. As well as having the pain of last year at the forefront of his mind, Van der Flier’s experience of Leinster’s last Champions Cup win, it 2018, was also tinged with frustration having been injured for the Bilbao final against Racing.
In 2018 I played all the group games but even though you played the majority of games, lads might say, ‘oh no, you played a huge part in the group games to get us there’ but you still want to be there on those big days, playing on the pitch.
“So yeah, it’s a huge motivation for me really. It’s something you dream about.”
Asked for his earliest Champions Cup memories, Van der Flier recalls watching Leinster’s breakthrough win in 2009 at home and dreaming of being involved in such an occasion. Some of his heroes from that 2009 side are now teammates.
“I think when Johnny (Sexton) walks into the room there’s still a bit of like ‘It’s Johnny’. I’d see them as my peers now but there’s still that element of… You get used to being their teammate, their mate or whatever but when you shift your mind sometimes you think ‘it’s mad’, when you look back and think ‘It’s mad that I’m playing with him, I watched him on TV when I was younger and he was my hero’ and if I drove past him even it would be the highlight of my day and now you’re playing with them.
“It goes in waves, when you go in that frame of mind, I still haven’t gotten used to it.”
Having faced La Rochelle last year and in the 2021 semi-finals, Van der Flier anticipates another tight encounter tomorrow, with the battle at the breakdown key. And while Van der Flier is enjoying a rich vein of form, La Rochelle’s versatile seven, Levani Botia, has a habit of making life difficult for Leinster.
“He’s brilliant. He’s probably one of the best poachers there is around, he’s really good over the ball, good, physical ball-carrier really. It says it all that he can play 12 or he can play 7. That’s quite impressive, I don’t know if I could play 12. He’s a brilliant player and definitely one of the key men in their team and he’s performed brilliantly for them.”
The two flankers are just two of the stars set to take the field in Dublin for what promises to be another fascinating encounter.
“We’ve got the dream ahead of us this week,” Van der Flier adds. “We’ve got a European final and a chance to win a star.
“I think the opportunity it is, having your family and friends there supporting, and obviously you’re staying at home, you’re not travelling abroad and the Leinster supporters, they’ve been so good, you have them so close and there will be loads of them at the game and you’ll have all the supporters in the pubs all around Dublin and Leinster, they’ll all be supporting us so it’s incredibly exciting.
“It’s kind of the dream situation really to be in the final at home.”
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