RICHIE PICKINGS
He’s modelled his game on New Zealand great Mccaw and now Blues’ Josh is reaping reward
JOSH VAN DER FLIER is channeling his inner Richie Mccaw in a bid to shine among Leinster’s back row treasures.
The Ireland flanker did his Six Nations hopes no harm in the New Year’s Day win over Connacht, with his 34 successful tackles deservedly earning plaudits.
They’re stats All Blacks legend Richie Mccaw, the man he models his game on, would have been proud to record.
But Van der Flier says they’re the result of a decision to work as hard as possible.
“I’ve always worked hard on my fitness,” he explained. “It’s been something I have to focus on because the role of a 7 – I suppose Mccaw made it that way – is that you always have to do as much work as possible.
“He kind of set the standard there. Everyone is trying to be as good as he was.
“I wouldn’t be the biggest lad – compare me to Rhys Ruddock, Jack Conan, any of those lads – they’d be a lot bigger than me.
“Sean O’brien too, I’m not going to run over the top of people the way they would. I have to bring it in other areas.
“Workrate is something I can try to bring in. I haven’t looked at Mccaw in a while now but he was definitely the master of it.”
The distinctive red scrum cap always worn by van der Flier, 24, was seen popping up all over the RDS pitch as Leinster just about held Connacht at bay.
Afterwards he was shocked to learn he had made 34 tackles in the 21-18 win – even though he instinctively knew he had racked up his most ever.
He said: “I remember thinking, ‘I’m making a lot of tackles here’ but I thought it was around the 25 mark.
“I was pretty surprised afterwards to hear how many it was. It was good.
“Ross Molony got 29 and Max Deegan’s total was 25. It was just one of those games – 29 is an outrageous amount for any game. It just happened to be a high tackling game.”
If he plays on Sunday, van der Flier can expect to make another heap of tackles against a Glasgow side that likes to go wide.
But Leinster are a different proposition to the callow outfit that struggled in European competition only two years ago.
“We’ve got a good bit of confidence,” said van der Flier. “It’s going well, we got off to a good start in Europe so we weren’t really chasing our tails. A lot of young lads got a lot of experience two years ago when we struggled a bit in Europe. That helps.”