As Leinster’s second string recorded a statement win in Durban over the weekend against the Sharks, it’s all change for the Irish province as their attention turns towards the Investec Champions Cup and an appointment with Harlequins in the Round of 16.

Planet Rugby’s James While caught up with a great of Irish rugby, the superb openside flanker Josh van der Flier, as he reflects on his time under Jacques Nienaber, his struggle with golf and getting prepared for the unpredictability of Harlequins.

Teamship key

“I don’t know how to articulate it exactly, but certainly I’ve had coaches from England, from Wales, and obviously from Ireland,” said Van der Flier.

“You get a similar kind of thinking and approach to the game between New Zealand, Irish and English coaches – for sure, there may be slightly different certain things they focus on, but Jacques has a different approach, one that starts with the group mentality and teamship above all else.

“He’s got a lot of insights into how he’s managed to get the best out of the players who have played with him. He’s obviously worked with some of the best players in the world, and, as a double World Cup winner, you know what he teaches works.

“From a non-technical point of view, he’s a very good motivator. He’s great at getting you in the right frame of mind and, really importantly, he expects you to work as a teammate to others, something key within the Springboks as we saw in 2023. He talks about how you should behave as a teammate.

“With long campaigns like we’re in, at any time in the season, there’s always 23 lads who are delighted to be playing, but then you have another 25 lads or so who are very disappointed to be left out. Jacques is really good at making sure the mindset of the whole group is focused and as one.

“He’s clear about what he expects of players who aren’t selected, because it happens to everyone at some stage that they’re in that position.”

“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 flank.

Time to succeed

“It’s obviously been a tricky, tricky few years for us (at Leinster), and we’re painfully aware of not having succeeded in bringing trophies home. We’ve had plenty of opportunity, but I think from our point of view, and we’ve spoken as a team about it a lot, it really comes down to such small margins at the end of the day. Someone has to be the winner in these competitions, and it comes down to very small margins,” said Van der Flier.

“So you have to stick to what you can control and close out the noise. Obviously, the overriding goal is to win trophies and we’ve opportunities on two fronts once again, but I think what the focus has to be is trying to get to the end of season, saying we did everything we could, that we worked really hard, that we gave it our all, we prepared as well as we could, and that we performed as well as as we could at the time.”

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Van der Flier continued: “I think if you get very results driven, you tend to put a bit too much pressure on yourself, and probably don’t play with that freedom that’s needed, so there’s always a balance on the back of our minds.

“Yes, the goal is to win every tournament we’re in, but I think, for us anyway, the big focus has to be trying to perform as well as we can. And that sounds probably fairly clichéd or simple, but that’s exactly how I try and frame it.

“We have Jacques and RG Snyman to bring their huge knowledge now. They’ve obviously both won the World Cup, and Jordie Barrett’s had a lot of success with New Zealand over a long period of time as well, so there’s a lot of winning experience we can draw on within the group.

“We’ve been pretty consistent over the last few years, and it’s just been those last games where we’ve faltered. In some of them, it could easily have gone the other way, and we could be talking about having one or two of the cups in the trophy cupboard.

“It’s always fine margins in sports, so it would probably be silly, I think, to completely go away from what we’ve been doing and we have to trust in what we do.”

Downtime

With Leinster chasing their double and a Lions tour on the horizon in June and July, Van der Flier’s season will reach something like ten or eleven months by the time he puts his feet up for a rest. In the meantime, he’s careful to look after his body, managing workload to maximise his output, but has admitted that his newly found love of golf is assisting him greatly.

“Now you’re talking,” he laughed.

“I admit I am a really obsessive person. I used to live with five other lads, and we all played and all we talked about 24/7 was rugby. I think golf is my hobby outlet, whether it’s watching it or practicing a bit of putting in the living room or on the driving range – and it’s kind of nice  it doesn’t take much out of the body.

“I don’t get to play a huge amount when matches are going on, but I read a lot about the sport and I find it relatable to rugby.

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“I love it actually, and I find it really helpful from a rugby perspective. It doesn’t feel like I’m working if you know what I mean, or like I’m not like in my rugby mind, when I am reading or playing the game. It gets the brain going, and then you’re, you’re trying to sleep just thinking about the rugby – there are so many parallels and the mental approach is fascinating,” Van der Flier confirmed.

“From a body management perspective, we’re very well looked after. My body feels great and I put that down to the fact I’ve been taking a few tips off Cian Healy!

“I’ve had a good few chats with him because he’s the master of body management. It’s been a long season already, but this is where you need to be at this level.

“You need to be peaking and playing your best, so yeah, it’s all about trying to get fresh at this point of the season and try and put your best foot forward for knockout rugby.”

Looking forward

With Harlequins faltering in their race to the Premiership play-offs, the Irish flanker is wary of the challenge ahead, knowing that Quins have the ability to create danger for any team. With a stacked back-row and some wonderfully creative players in the backline, Van der Flier and Leinster are taking nothing for granted as they host the London side at Croke Park.

“Looking at Quins, there’s not really much in terms of weaknesses. There’s just quality all throughout – good kicking, good running game and very good up front. They’ve been, they’ve been very impressive at times this season, but I think they would have been disappointed at their inconsistency,” he said.

“What they do have is a lot of individual a lot of individuals with some pretty impressive abilities, so it’s very hard to look at one area, because they really do have threats all throughout.

“I know there are a couple of lads who seem to be in and out with injuries or potential doubts for the weekend, but players like Cunningham-South and Evans test you as a forward.

“And from a back-row point of view, it’s always exciting to get to play against players of that, it’s always a big challenge.

“We’re well aware of the threat they pose and we’re taking nothing for granted, that I assure you.”

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