Josh van der Flier: Ireland used World Cup defeat as a stepping stone instead of a reset

Andy Farrell’s men saw their 17-game winning streak come to a shuddering halt against New Zealand in the World Cup Quarter-Finals last October but, against France in their first game since, they kept faith with the same structures and many of the same players that had led to such successes prior to that fateful day in Saint Denis.

Going head to head against Les Bleus, a side who had their own World Cup heartache to process since we saw them last, Ireland looked like a well-oiled machine in the 38-17 victory while their opponents were clunky in comparison.

“I think one thing I’ve found which has been brilliant,” said the 2022 World Player of the Year “is a lot of the narrative — it’s a new start, it’s a new cycle or whatever, that certainly wasn’t the case with how we’ve gone about it in the last few weeks.

“It’s just been ‘right, what have we learned from New Zealand, what have we been doing well’.

“It’s almost a continuation on from where the squad has been. I suppose we’re still taking learnings along the way and it’s almost like the World Cup was a stepping stone to keep going, to keep improving.

“That’s kind of been the mindset that Andy Farrell has been driving with us and that obviously helped today.”

Victory first up in what was perceived to be their toughest challenge of the Championship, of course, has fans dreaming of what would be a second consecutive Grand Slam, a feat Ireland have never managed and one that has not been seen by any team since the days of Five Nations.

Van der Flier, though, believes those within the camp will stay in the moment.

“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, there’s still four big games left so we’ll take it step by step,” said the 30-year-old who again was one-third of an effective back-row unit that also included Caelan Doris and new skipper Peter O’Mahony.

“I know we always say that but it is still the nature of it, we can’t get ahead of ourselves. But it’s a brilliant start, so we have to be very happy with that.

“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 obviously 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. It’s just the way rugby goes, I suppose, no matter how hard you try.”

If that requires a little mental coaching, Van der Flier is confident the squad’s mindset is strong.

“It’s definitely in a good place,” he added..

“One thing I thought was that the work of Gary Keegan as psychologist and the way the coaches kind of... as I mentioned with the atmosphere, it’s something that we talked about.

“You’re kind of prepared for those things and then the leadership of Pete O’Mahony, I thought he was brilliant on Friday.

“There were times when they scored that the crowd was going crazy and it was getting to be a pretty close game and he was just... there wasn’t even a raised voice, he was just calm, just telling us to get back into it and he had given us clear messages.

“I think that was there from a leadership point of view and then, having spoken about it and it’s something that we work on, it’s in a good place.

“But it’s one of those things, you have to keep continually working on it. If you don’t address it one week, that’s when things can go against you a bit.

“It’s definitely been a strength of ours, I think, over the last couple of years and we’ll keep working on it.”