Leinster's Van der Flier ready to put shoulder to the wheel

Josh van der Flier may be too honest for his own good.

The expectation was that he would start alongside Jack Conan and Sean O’Brien for the Champions Cup quarter-final against Wasps at the start of the month but, with just 80 minutes banked against Cardiff since his return from shoulder problems, Leo Cullen plumped for Dan Leavy instead. “If I was unbiased I wouldn’t have picked me either,” the UCD flanker admitted.

Truth is he’s not fully up to speed yet despite managing another 19 minutes off the bench against the English side and 80 in the win away to Wasps last weekend. There he is being honest to a fault, again, although he follows it up quickly by declaring his readiness for Connacht on Saturday.