Van der Flier goal to make sure he can’t get dropped

16 International caps for Josh van der Flier, who made his Ireland debut in 2016

WITH Sean O’Brien left out of the match-squad entirely, the man who has taken over the Ireland No7 jersey for tomorrow’s showdown with France says it is his mission to become impossible to drop.

Josh van der Flier started at openside for Ireland’s opening Six Nations loss at home to England, with O’Brien on the bench, before the pair swapped roles for the last two wins away to Scotland and Italy.

Now, with O’Brien out of the equation this weekend, his Leinster colleague has a golden opportunity to nail down his place as Joe Schmidt continues to arrange his starting pieces in advance of the World Cup.

‘Everyone knows how competitive it is,’ said the 25-year-old, who will win his 17th cap tomorrow.

‘I was in for the England game, on the bench for the next games and I am desperate to be playing. Obviously my goal is that you want to be starting every game, especially in the green jersey.

‘It’s the goal to be so good that you can’t be dropped. That’s what you want. I feel fortunate, to be honest, to wear the Irish jersey and you kind of take those chances when you can and you work as hard as you can to get those chances — get on the team-sheet and work as hard as you can,’ added Van der Flier (right).

A lot of that work tomorrow will be around the breakdown, where Ireland have lacked their customary accuracy in this championship, and Van der Flier says dominating the French in this key area has been a big target in the build-up.

‘It is massive and gets stressed a lot during the week. It’s one of the main things we focus on because you can have all lovely set-plays, little moves or work on how to break down teams but, if the breakdown is poor and you’re losing the ball, it’s all kind of pointless.

‘Joe demands very high standards of us, especially in the breakdown. A lot of the players won’t accept poor standards in terms of the breakdown especially. People will call people out if something’s not right which is pretty good,’ added Van der Flier, who says he has adapted his approach to winning turnovers on studying revered ex-All Black No7 Richie McCaw (right).

‘I used to kind of get caught up with turnovers watching McCaw and (David) Pocock, when you see on the TV how many turnovers they got in the game. ‘What actually changed my mindset was that I was reading a bit of McCaw’s book a few years ago and he said he stopped looking at the number of turnovers he got but looked at how effective he was with the number of chances he got. ‘That’s probably more the way I’d look at it. Sometimes I might end up going to too many breakdowns where I’m not needed and sometimes I was needed in a breakdown and the ball slowed down because I didn’t get there. ‘So I try and read it as I go and make sure where I should be and not be wasted.’ Tomorrow is a chance Van der Flier is determined not to waste after a campaign where the team have struggled to hit the heights of last year. With O’Brien still in the picture and Grand Slam hero Dan Leavy nearing a return from injury, Van der Flier knows he has to produce or his place will be vulnerable — but that is the type of intensity he relishes. ‘There is definitely pressure, you just have to be at your best and push each other on. ‘The competitiveness of it makes everyone better. It’s only a good thing.’