YOU DON’T REGISTER a 62-0 scoreline without a handful of players delivering standout performances, yet after Leinster’s 10-try dismissal of Harlequins yesterday flanker Josh van der Flier felt the obvious choice for the player of the match award.

Across a dominant Leinster display, Van der Flier looked a level above. When Harlequins had their short-lived purple patch in the opening quarter, the 31-year-old played his part in Leinster’s stubborn defensive stand which kept the London side scoreless.

And as Leinster then grew into the game he was to the fore, making a series of hard carries and providing a slick out-the-back-pass to send Jamie Osborne through for Leinster’s third try, before adding his own score in the second half. 

A productive afternoon saw Van der Flier chip in with 11 carries for 85 metres, 10 tackles, three linebreaks and two offloads as he made his mark on both sides of the ball. Consider any post-Six Nations cobwebs well and truly blown off.

“Yeah, it was nice to get the ball a few times,” Van der Flier said.

Van der Flier was heavily involved throughout. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

“It’s kind of the way some games go, some games the ball comes your way a lot, some days it doesn’t. There was a huge amount of good work from the forwards and then backs getting a good bit of space and width, and I managed to find myself in places where I had one-on-ones or a bit of space, so I think it’s off the back of some good teamwork.

“It was enjoyable to get on the ball a bit, some good attacking work from all the lads.

“I thought we prepped really well. Obviously it’s always tricky with a lot of the squad away in South Africa, I was home in Dublin with a lot of the lads who played today and we were obviously training away and we got some great training under the belt last week, catching up with the coaches and getting the calls back in your head and changing from from the Irish system of calling back to Leinster.

“So I thought it was two really good weeks of training, lads were quickly clicking well, particularly this week every training seemed to get a bit better and better and more cohesive and it was a pleasing performance.” 

To score 10 tries in a Champions Cup knockout game sends a statement about Leinster’s attack, but to nil the opposition is probably the more significant achievement. This was a truly humbling experience for a Harlequins side who often land around the 30-point mark in their Premiership games. 

Next up it’s Glasgow in the quarter-finals, and the Scottish side will head to Dublin knowing this is a Leinster team who now take as much pride in their defensive effort as they do their attacking qualities. Van der Flier said as much himself, highlighting how those 62-points might not have flowed as freely if it wasn’t for the mental boost generated by that early defensive stand.

“The start of the game, there wasn’t much in it at all and I thought that defensive set we had, if they score there, they had the chance to score maybe two or three tries and if we let them in there then it’s a very different game.

I think that good defensive set at the start kicked us off for a good performance.

“It obviously gives you great confidence, to be honest, when you manage to put a good few points on the board,” he added.

“I think mentally there’s always a threat of forgetting how hard we had to work during the week to get there and there’s a threat of forgetting the first 10/20 minutes when we had to work unbelievably hard to keep them out.

“You have to balance it mentally, take the confidence in a positive way and also make sure you’re switched on and ready for a game, because some games go like that and they’re high scoring and some games for whatever reason can just as easily be very tight and things go the other way, so we’ll be ready for anything and start again on Monday with a big week’s prep.” 

While Leinster can now look forward to their Friday night date with Glasgow, Harlequins – semi-finalists in this competition last season – were left picking through the pieces of a demoralising defeat. 

“Our experience last year is we got to a semi-final and had a brilliant run in the competition, knocking over Bordeaux over there and then going and playing Toulouse and we weren’t far away in that game,” said head coach Danny Wilson.

We have had some decent wins against URC teams as well in this campaign. Today we were completely blown away, but it is Leinster and, to me, I have experienced playing against them and having tough days and they are a very good outfit.

“What do they have, 21 (players) in the Ireland squad? You go through that team today and if it’s not an Irish international it’s RG Snyman, Jordie Barrett on the bench, a Test match All Black. It’s phenomenal.

“What they have created here is the consistency of a lot of good players and a system that brings through player after player. It is the envy of other people and it is going to finals and winning them is the cherry on the cake for them to finish off.

“I would only focus on Leinster and not the league, the differences in the league. We are in a salary cap competition, France and others aren’t. Or aren’t in the same position, let’s say, but we and Northampton got to the semi-finals of Europe last year.”