Josh van der Flier wasn’t one of those who had a bad World Cup. Van der Flier made 55 tackles and missed just four for a success rate of over 97% in a position that is invariably at or near the epicentre of the traffic and the madness. “Obviously they’ve got the club to the position we’re in in the PRO14, so they’ve been incredible and it really pushes us on. I suppose there always is.”Experience and the peculiar nous needed to operate as an openside in elite rugby still counts for so much though and the Leinster coaches duly turned to van der Flier when it came time to name their first European team of the season, for the visit of Benetton to Dublin last week. “It was good, there was a good flow to the game,” he said ahead of the round two trip to Lyon.

Source: Irish Examiner November 21, 2019 06:11 UTC