Last Wednesday’s mood in Dublin was sweetness and light for Josh van der Flier. He was out front modelling Ireland’s latest jersey reveal for Canterbury and revelling in the relaxed foothills of a pre-season that is still several weeks away from the weekly on-field clattering his body takes. That sure was nice.
Another pleasant perspective was his Greatest Rivalry series verdict. Rather than having to immerse himself in the ebb and flow of every moment unfolding in South Africa, the holiday mode meant the action was a guilty pleasure he didn’t have to get hung up over.
“I watched a few bits and pieces but not a huge amount, not too in-depth,” he admitted to Planet Rugby. “They’re good Test matches to be honest; it’s pretty competitive and it’s nice to see.
“I have been enjoying watching Jordie (Barrett) and Rieko (Ioane) playing. Having been in Leinster with them, you kind of know how they think and stuff. It’s good to watch. It’s nice to watch as a neutral and be able to enjoy the game. It’s been good.”
“As far as we are concerned that is what I’d be focusing on…”
Saturday’s most recent match pushed the Springboks 2-1 ahead in a series that will oddly have its finale staged in the United States of America next weekend. Ten weeks after that, Van der Flier will hope to be on the Aviva Stadium pitch judging for himself up close just how good Rassie Erasmus’ class of 2026 really are.
It was six weeks ago when the back-rower felt the wrath of the other team involved in the Greatest Rivalry. Ireland pitched up in Auckland looking to post a statement that they are on the way back to their best, but they instead exited without a whimper, getting dusted 28-7 in the opening half to round off a season where they were also schooled by South Africa and France.
The fall-out reheated the grumblings that Andy Farrell’s charges are treading water and that their ranking as third in the world was more a nod to times past rather than genuine evidence that they are closing the gap.
These post-mortems made for sombre reading but they didn’t trouble Van der Flier’s orbit. Being up to speed with the media brickbats wasn’t on his to-do with the holidays beckoning after the three-match southern hemisphere sojourn ended at Eden Park, but the 33-year-old had been around the block long enough to know he can’t sugarcoat things either.
“I honestly haven’t seen much of it in terms of (negative) talk, but in terms of how we feel about it, I suppose even just looking back at the last three games, the start of the Nations series, we probably didn’t play our best against Australia, managed to get a win, a good win against Japan, who played really well, and then we were pretty disappointed against New Zealand.
“So I suppose as far as we are concerned that is what I’d be focusing on. I haven’t seen much of the chat around it, but it’s definitely something that Andy always talks to us about is trying to improve every campaign.
“It’s probably not something we have done consistently enough, but I am sure we will be looking to improve and hopefully we will be better in November and start to build a bit of momentum.”
Involvement in that four-match block, starting with Argentina in Dublin on November 6 and culminating in a play-off match at Twickenham after in-between home games with Fiji and South Africa, is the target for the 33-year-old who has become a dab hand in laying a solid summer foundation to be ready for his autumnal exploits.
“Normally, play a bit of golf and try to get away,” said the 2022 World Rugby Player of the Year, explaining the approach he takes to recharging the body now that he is a veteran 30-something forward and no longer a whipper snapper.
Springboks: Felix Jones ‘is always a guy that blew my mind every day’
“I got away to France for a few days, which was lovely, and we’re moving house at the same time, so there’s a lot of things going on. Something that is not rugby is good. Like, I didn’t watch much rugby.
“I saw bits and pieces of highlights here and there but, as much as I could, I tried to stay away from it. Still kept up the fitness and a bit of gym and stuff, but other than that I wasn’t doing anything rugby-specific.
“I find that helps me, and then also not having to tackle people and stuff during the week is normally a good way to let the body rest as well, but I definitely find that if I can just switch and do something else, not think about it at all for a couple of weeks anyway.
“Like, most of the running we’d do (at training) is shuttle runs, and it’s very rugby-based, whereas sometimes you just go for a run or a cycle or something; you just get to exercise and it’s lovely to do.
“It switches you off, but it’s like something completely different. It’s just something you never do, and it’s probably not even helpful to rugby, but it’s just nice to get out. So those kinds of things.”
And yet, he’d been mindful about what he needs to target if he is to continue to be a point of difference and still be in the No.7 Ireland shirt by the time Rugby World Cup 2027 swings into focus.
“I’d always try and have a think over the off-season and certainly then at the start of pre-season you think of what you want to work on for the year. There are a few things.
“You are always trying to work on the things that have gone well, so I was trying to add a bit of variety to my ball carry, working on the defensive breakdown. There are always a few things, just like small things you pick on through the year, which you don’t necessarily get to work on.
“In each area of the game, I probably have a couple of things I want to focus on or wasn’t quite as good at, or those kinds of things went well, so I want to work on a bit more on those.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
“So there is always stuff like that, but it’s definitely like the pre-season as well because when you get into season it’s game to game and it’s very hard to really work on something, if you know what I mean.
“You kind of get to do it a little bit but then you are trying to save your legs for the weekend so pre-season is probably the time to try and implement a few of those kind of more physical things whether it be a bit of footwork in the carry or working on your clean-outs at ruck or whatever, you get to do the technical bits in off-season which is good.”