New PRO14 tackle record
“There are always things to improve. Looking on the tackles as individual tackles, there are things I could have done better but overall I was pretty happy.”
The ability to keep getting up to make the next hit is the result of the flanker’s hard work on the training field.
“I’ve always worked hard on my fitness,” he said.
“It’s been something I kind of have to focus on because the role of a No.7 — I suppose (Richie) 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, Seán O’Brien too.
“So I’m not going to run over the top of people the way they would. I have to bring it in other areas. Work-rate is something I can try to bring in.”
Although the Scots are out of the qualification race, Van der Flier is expecting another busy day at the coal-face at the RDS.