Van der Flier pleased with Ireland's ability to navigate way through Cardiff storm

Ireland’s victory over Wales under the roof of the Principality Stadium was a triumph for mental strength.

Mon, 24 Feb, 2025 - 01:00

Simon Lewis

For a player that relishes the chaos of Test match rugby, you can understand why Josh van der Flier loves playing in Cardiff.

Ireland’s victory over Wales under the roof of the Principality Stadium was a triumph for mental strength in the midst of bedlam as a sell-out crowd belted out Land of My Fathers and then saw their winless side re-energised under new head coach Matt Sherratt to give the back-to-back Guinness Six Nations champions an almighty scare on Saturday.

Showing little sign of the miserable run of form that had delivered 11 straight Test defeats and brought the tenure of Warren Gatland as head coach to an acrimonious end, Welsh players were clearly delighted to be back on home soil following defeats in Paris and Rome.

Such is the intensity that a closed roof brings to the occasion in Cardiff that all the senses are heightened on a match day.

The crowd is louder and the colours more vivid than in any other Six Nations venue and it brought out the best in Wales with their backs to the wall as they faced an unbeaten but much-changed Irish side that had to dig deep to come from 18-10 down four minutes into the second half to score 17 unanswered points to stay on course for a Grand Slam and championship title three in a row.

“It was an unbelievable atmosphere. I absolutely love playing here,” van der Flier said. “It’s very loud, it echoes. It actually gets unbelievably warm on the field, you kind of sweat like it’s a summer’s day. I haven’t played against anyone other than Wales here with the roof closed and they’re always really tough, physical games. Even when you play Wales in Dublin it's still that real intense tough game.

“So I think it’s probably more Wales but also the atmosphere is unbelievable especially when Wales got going at the end of the first half, at the start of the second half they scored a try as well. The atmosphere was incredible, real loud. A special place to play.”

That Ireland had the composure to regroup following the end of Garry Ringrose’s 20-minute red card period and the return to 15 players with Bundee Aki’s introduction made their victory all the more impressive, van der Flier agreed.

“It’s something that we talk about a lot. In rugby and in professional sport in general, especially when you’re playing away from home, there’s a lot of chaos going on outside.

"But I suppose inside your mind internally you need to be fairly calm and among the team it needs to be quite relaxed and calm but obviously on the outside it's absolute chaos, it's noisy, it’s a lot of things happening. So very pleased with how the lads dealt with it all today because it was a messy day I suppose.”

It was the sort of day which should stand to Ireland better than a processional victory that recent form had suggested and van der Flier said there was an obligation to keep on improving with two games in the championship remaining.

“There’s definitely an expectation. I think every team goes into a tournament, well I hope they do, that they want to win the tournament they’re playing in. But I think particularly this group.

“Lads genuinely believe they’re going to do it and there’s a huge belief in the group that we can be the best team in the world and that we can win every competition we come into. We expect it of each other that we’re at that standard so I think it’s a good place to be.”