Written by Eoin Harte
Despite being a favourite to start against England in the Six Nations, Josh van der Flier could miss out on the World Cup, according to Ruaidhri O’Connor.
"You can only take five back rows to the World Cup," O'Connor said on Friday's OTB AM.
"If [Sean] O’Brien, Van der Flier and [Dan] Leavy are fit, I think Van der Flier misses out personally."
Van der Flier has been focusing on his skill at the breakdown in recent times, which is an area where O’Connor believes that his main rivals at Ireland and Leinster have an advantage over him.
"I think the major thing he had to work on was getting in over the ball. I think that’s what Leavy and O’Brien have over him," O'Connor noted.
"I think he’s probably the best tackler of the three and he’s a very good carrier as well, I love the way he accelerates into contact, but he probably isn’t as good over the ball."
Some players have almost made a career around their expertise at ruck time, such as the Wallabies’ David Pocock. It is unlikely that Van der Flier will be able to focus on this part of his game so extensively, due to his other strengths.
"Van der Flier has about ten roles in the set up in Leinster and in the Ireland team, so it's just don’t go into every breakdown because we need you in the defensive line.
"He was talking about how we was trying to get better in that area and Lancaster took him aside and said, ‘look you can’t go chasing this, you’ve got to identify the time."
Van der Flier currently has the upper hand over O’Brien and Leavy as they have both struggled with injuries in recent times and is expected to start against England.
The back row is not the only area of fervent competition in the Leinster squad, with Jack McGrath being dropped for Ed Byrne for the game against Toulouse last weekend.
Alan Quinlan was also in studio and saw this as potentially a positive development for McGrath.
"Ed Byrne is not going to sit back and say I’m happy to be behind Cian Healy and Jack McGrath," Quinlan believes.
"He has obviously thrown down the gauntlet and caught Leo Cullen’s eye.
"Maybe he felt it was a little bit of a shake up for Jack McGrath, that it would drive him on to get his standards high, if they had dropped."
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
