OUR FEET FIRMLY ON THE GROUND
insists Ireland will not let complacency creep in after their opening Six Nations victory.
The potential for historic back-to-back Grand Slams is on the cards following the impressive dismantling of France on Friday.
But Leinster flanker van der Flier, 30, cautioned: “We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves – there’s still four big games left so we’ll take it step by step.”
There is no question that the 38-17 triumph was one of the great performances by an Irish team and van der Flier acknowledged the importance of the result.
“Any team you play away in France, whether it’s club or country, it’s always a very hard place and to do it for Ireland is a very special day,” he said.
It was a game that saw a new wave of Irish talent make their Six Nations breakthrough, with Andy Farrell handing two exciting young guns their championship debuts.
Lock Joe Mccarthy, 22, and 26-year-old winger Calvin Nash (above left) impressed, the latter scoring the third of five tries and Mccarthy (above centre) taking home the man of the match award.
Then there was 24-year-old Jack Crowley (above right), who was making his first Six
Nations start and had the daunting task of replacing the retired legend Johnny Sexton at fly-half.
Van der Flier didn’t need to hand out any advice to the marauding Mccarthy in the build-up.
“Not particularly, no, he’s a great lad,” he said of his Leinster clubmate. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders.”
And his hairstyle?
“It’s a good haircut, yeah,” laughed van der Flier. “It’s aspirational that mullet but he has worked hard on it and he’s very proud of it as you can see!”
As for himself, van der Flier was pleased to have got the start at Test level after finding himself in a battle for selection at Leinster in recent times.
He added: “It doesn’t really change anything for me personally.
“I’m trying to put as much effort as I can into every game and it’s the way rugby is, some games it’s easy to get into it at the start, some games you’re not near it at all.
“If there’s more kicking – and there was a good bit of kicking on Friday – it can be harder.”