Josh van der Flier finally gets to live his Lions dream

Josh van der Flier gets his chance to wear that famous red jersey at the age of 32 and bring to life the dreams he played out in his back garden after watching the Lions from afar here at home two decades ago.

LIONS DREAM: Josh van der Flier Lions dream is finally coming through after missing out on the 2021 Tour. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Josh van der Flier has gone a long way for a man who never really went anywhere. The day job is a Leinster outfit that has its base in UCD, a campus where he attended college and played AIL rugby before moving on to the professional game.

His home matches, for both club and country, are played in the city where he went to school and learned so much about his trade. Even his first experience with the British and Irish Lions has had Dublin as its initial backdrop.

One of the late arrivals into camp after Leinster’s URC final defeat of the Bulls, van der Flier was able to stroll from the team’s digs in St Stephen’s Green to his wife’s workplace nearby for lunch. It didn’t really feel like being on tour at all.

That will be different now that the party has moved on to Perth and a fixture against Western Force this Saturday in which he will be expected to garner some game time having sat out the tour opener against Argentina in the Aviva Stadium.

It’s been a long time coming.

Unfortunate to miss out for the South African trip in 2021, he was made stew that bit longer when the squad was announced last month, the alphabetical arrangement giving him some nervous moments before he brought up the rear in terms of forwards.

“You have a good idea of how squads are made up so you obviously need specialized lineout back rows, maybe one or two sevens. And then there was like four sevens and my name hadn’t been called and you think, ‘oh no’, but I made it in the end.” 

He did, but the anxiousness didn’t end there. A hamstring injury – his first ever – forced an early exit against Scarlets in the URC quarter-final and he missed the last four tie against Glasgow before returning for the Bulls run at Croke Park.

TOUCHDOWN IN OZ: Josh van der Flier signs an autograph for a fan after arriving in Perth ahead of the Lioins first game against Western Force on Saturday. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Now, finally, he gets his chance to wear that famous red jersey at the age of 32 and bring to life the dreams he played out in his back garden after watching the Lions from afar here at home two decades ago.

“We didn’t have the channels in my house,” he explained. “My grandparents lived across the road so we would go in and watch the Lions. I just have a vague memory of it, I would have been quite young. I distinctly remember, I think it was 2005, we had a family video and we taped over it by mistake.

“It was Lions against New Zealand that year, would that be right? So we used to watch that over and over again. We didn’t have the TV channels at home, it was just cassettes. So it was either that or Star Wars or something. So I ended up watching a lot of that 2005 Lions game.” 

Which of the three Tests they recorded that time he didn’t say. It doesn’t matter much in the sense that the tourists were well-beaten in all three. The current crop made for the southern hemisphere with far more expected of them.

No-one would say it’s easy or straightforward when merging players from four different national teams – and 15 clubs - into one but Felipe Contepomi had an interesting take on that concept before last week’s Puma game in Dublin.

The Argentina manager drew parallels in style between Ireland, Scotland and Wales and suggested that even England’s strategic approach through the back end of the Six Nations campaign mirrored something of their Celtic cousins.

It could be that there is more uniformity in rugby these days.

"There seems to be,” said van der Flier. “A lot of coaches seem to have done it well. Like in Ireland there was obviously Joe Schmidt and then a few coaches and players under him, and they end up coaching the way he did.

"I think there's probably a bit of spillover. Andy Farrell coming from England, I'm sure there would have been players who worked with him and on previous Lions tours. There definitely is a bit of crossover.

“I wouldn't know any difference, if you know what I mean, so I couldn't really compare it to too much, but I don't think from my perspective I've found it too different and I don't think too many lads have. I think they've settled in quite well.”