Josh van der Flier: ‘If it had come off, I’d have been the hero’

Josh van der Flier could have kept mum but that would have meant surrendering to 36 hours or so of mental torture until the inevitable moment when Joe Schmidt stopped the tape and zeroed in on his botched offload deep in the New Zealand 22.

Much better to face up to the inevitable, to rip the plaster off in one painful swoop and be done with it, rather than wait for the video nasty.

So he approached the Ireland coach after the final whistle to discuss the moment when he tried and failed to force the All Black wall.