Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
JOSH VAN DER CRIER
Blues star admits the derby clash makes him emotional
WHEN he was a kid, this derby game meant so much to Josh van der Flier that he used to cry afterwards – win or lose.
These days the Leinster and Ireland flanker is just hungry for a start, having been restricted to two bench appearances against Munster to date.
“I never got tickets for any of them but I watched them on TV and I would have been in tears if we lost and probably in tears as well when we won,” the 24-year-old said.
“Good memories of watching them, especially that one at Croke Park that we won well.
“I would have been a bit more emotional when I was younger.
“Things might mean a lot to me but if I am very sad or very happy I wouldn’t really show it that much.
“I cried after the semi-final there last year (against Clermont in the Champions Cup). Other than that, it’s been a long time.”
Van der Flier’s involvement against the Reds has been limited to 40-odd minutes, between the Aviva encounter this time two years ago and the subsequent December clash in Thomond Park. Leinster won both
games, but he recalls his team having to hang on for the result in the closing stages.
“Hopefully I’ll get a good go at them this year,” he said.
“It’s the game everyone wants to play in. There are obviously semi-finals and finals and stuff but other than those this is probably the biggest game of the year.
“We don’t like them very much and they don’t really like us so it makes for a good game. It’ll be very physical.
“It’s such a massive deal for me and, from watching the games when I was younger, I would say that we still dislike them as much as back then. The games last year were fairly physical.
“It’s funny. They’re all such lovely lads but you know what I mean!
“It will be very competitive, they’re all really good players and obviously you’d know a few of them from camp.
“But yeah, it’s just very exciting to hopefully get to play against them because I haven’t had a proper go at them.
“I know there were players rotated for both teams for the Christmas game but it’s going to be a big game and the fact that there are over 40,000 tickets sold already shows that people are still keen to watch the two teams go at it.”