{"id":617277,"date":"2026-09-07T14:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T14:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617277\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T14:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T14:42:09","slug":"the-dismissive-ireland-talk-that-josh-van-der-flier-hasnt-seen-much-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617277\/","title":{"rendered":"The dismissive Ireland talk that Josh van der Flier \u2018hasn\u2019t seen much of\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday\u2019s mood in Dublin was sweetness and light for Josh van der Flier. He was out front modelling Ireland<\/a>\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t have to get hung up over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched a few bits and pieces but not a huge amount, not too in-depth,\u201d he admitted to Planet Rugby. \u201cThey\u2019re good Test matches to be honest; it\u2019s pretty competitive and it\u2019s nice to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019s good to watch. It\u2019s nice to watch as a neutral and be able to enjoy the game. It\u2019s been good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as we are concerned that is what I\u2019d be focusing on\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s most recent match pushed the Springboks 2-1 ahead<\/a> 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\u2019 class of 2026 really are.<\/p>\n

It was six weeks ago when the back-rower felt the wrath of the other team involved in the Greatest Rivalry<\/a>. 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<\/a> and France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fall-out reheated the grumblings that Andy Farrell\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

These post-mortems made for sombre reading but they didn\u2019t trouble Van der Flier\u2019s orbit. Being up to speed with the media brickbats wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t sugarcoat things either.<\/p>\n

State of the Nation: \u2018Clock turns back\u2019 to last November for Andy Farrell as \u2018cosiness\u2019 of the Ireland set-up leads to \u2018sobering conclusion\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly haven\u2019t 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\u2019t 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I suppose as far as we are concerned that is what I\u2019d be focusing on. I haven\u2019t seen much of the chat around it, but it\u2019s definitely something that Andy always talks to us about is trying to improve every campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, play a bit of golf and try to get away,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Springboks: Felix Jones \u2018is always a guy that blew my mind every day\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI got away to France for a few days, which was lovely, and we\u2019re moving house at the same time, so there\u2019s a lot of things going on. Something that is not rugby is good. Like, I didn\u2019t watch much rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019t doing anything rugby-specific.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, most of the running we\u2019d do (at training) is shuttle runs, and it\u2019s very rugby-based, whereas sometimes you just go for a run or a cycle or something; you just get to exercise and it\u2019s lovely to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt switches you off, but it\u2019s like something completely different. It\u2019s just something you never do, and it\u2019s probably not even helpful to rugby, but it\u2019s just nice to get out. So those kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rating every Ireland player from the Nations Championship: Two standouts, including \u2018counter punching\u2019 forward, but too many \u2018missed opportunities\u2019 for Andy Farrell\u2019s side<\/a><\/p>\n

And yet, he\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou 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\u2019t necessarily get to work on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn each area of the game, I probably have a couple of things I want to focus on or wasn\u2019t quite as good at, or those kinds of things went well, so I want to work on a bit more on those.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there is always stuff like that, but it\u2019s definitely like the pre-season as well because when you get into season it\u2019s game to game and it\u2019s very hard to really work on something, if you know what I mean.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Who\u2019s hot and who\u2019s not: Springboks \u2018full of brutal beauty and irresistible skill\u2019 but \u2018crying shame\u2019 injuries leave \u2018jarring sour taste\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Wednesday\u2019s mood in Dublin was sweetness and light for Josh van der Flier. He was out front…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1100,61,3859,60,58265,1261,43,257],"class_list":["post-617277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-home-page","tag-ie","tag-internationals","tag-ireland","tag-josh-van-der-flier","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}