Fully refreshed after a long Six Nations campaign, Josh van der Flier is ready to put his body and soul into Leinster’s Investec Champions Cup campaign, which continues at Croke Park on Saturday with the Round of 16 clash against Harlequins.
After seven years without European rugby’s most coveted prize and four final defeats in the last six seasons, this has to be the year that the URC leaders and four-time champions of Europe finally snap their run of near-misses.
However, Ireland openside van der Flier believes they have the right formula to put those past heartaches behind them, especially with the injection of southern hemisphere talent, on the pitch and the touchlines.
“It’s obviously been a tricky few years for us, having not succeeded in bringing trophies home. At the back of our minds, yes, the goal is to win every tournament that we are in,” he said.
“We have had plenty of opportunities and we’ve spoken as a team about it a lot. But the focus has to be to try and get to the end of the season and say we did everything we could, we worked really hard, we gave it our all, and we performed as well as we could at the time.
“Whereas if you get very results driven, you probably tend to put a bit too much pressure on yourself and you probably don’t play with that freedom. There is always a balance.
“It may sound cliched and maybe simple, but that is how I try and frame it, and I think that’s the same throughout the group.”
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Van der Flier says Performance Coach Declan Darcy is “brilliant on the mental side” of the game, and his work has been complemented by sessions with Psychologist Ronan Conway.
“There is a huge amount of experience we can draw on from within the group as well,” he stressed.
“Jacques Nienaber has had success as a coach, and RG (Snyman) has had success as a player. They have obviously both won the World Cup, and Jordie Barrett has had a lot of success with New Zealand.”
Van der Flier, who turns 32 at the end of April, says Leinster haven’t ripped up the playbook or tried anything revolutionary in a bid to ensure they aren’t the nearly men for the fourth time in a row.
“It is easy to go back to the drawing board, but there has to be a bit of a reality check because we have played well and been pretty consistent these last few years, and it has only been the last game in Europe in the last few years. Things could have easily gone the other way, and we’d have been talking about having won a few of them. It is always fine margins in sport, so it would be silly to completely go away from what we have been doing.”
With 60,000 tickets already sold for the game at the iconic Croke Park, Saturday’s game should be some occasion. The only time that Leinster have played Harlequins since the infamous Bloodgate match was home-and-away during the 2014/15 season, when the home team prevailed on each occasion, so this is one of those rare cross-border meetings that tend to make the Champions Cup special.
Danny Care dropped a goal in the home win for Harlequins and is the only constant from the Premiership club’s point of view. Meanwhile, Leinster’s evergreen prop Cian Healy didn’t play in those back-to-back matches, but his association with the fixture goes way back, to 2008/09 and the time Harlequins’ Tom Williams feigned injury in a 6-5 win for the Irish province, a moment that changed his and Dean Richards’ career forever.
In terms of longevity of service, Van der Flier takes inspiration from Ireland’s most-capped player, who at 37 years of age is five years his senior when it comes to preserving his body.
“The body feels great, and I feel ready to go. I have been taking a few tips off Cian Healy. I have had a good few chats with him; he’s the master of it, and hopefully, I can go to 37 or whatever age he is,” said the 73-cap international.
“It is always tricky at this point of the season because you have played for a long time, and it has been a long season already, but we’re well looked after, and this is where you need to be peaking and playing at your best. It’s all about trying to get fresh at this point of the season and trying to put your best foot forward for knockout rugby.
Van der Flier started each of Ireland’s five games in their failed attempt to defend the Six Nations title, clocking up the third-most minutes of any player in green (352) and making the most tackles. But as much as a four-day break with his wife in Morocco did him good physically, he says it was also an important opportunity to recharge the batteries mentally.
“No one is really interested in rugby in Morocco. There are not too many rugby fans out there so it was nice to completely switch off from rugby.”
Van der Flier admitted in Tuesday’s media session that this is something he has struggled with in the past, describing himself as “a rugby obsessive”. But the winter sunshine break in North Africa, and his passion for golf, whether it is reading about it or practicing putting in the living room, has helped him to detox from the sport he has played professionally for over a decade.
The Dubliner also credits head coach Nineaber for his skill in getting everyone in the Leinster squad in the right frame of mind, as well as his obvious technical expertise.
“From a technical point of view, he adds a huge amount in terms of individual things in defence and tackling, but his real USP is within the team environment. He adds so much in terms of the attitude people should have, and that’s motivating for the whole group,” explained the Irish flanker, who is looking forward to playing at Croke Park again.
He added: “There is a huge amount of history both inside and outside of sport that goes with the stadium, and that makes it a very cool place to play.”
