Josh van der Flier is delighted to be back in Leinster colours after the disappointment of Ireland’s quarter-final exit at the Rugby World Cup.
The 26-year-old was speaking to the media ahead of Leinster’s Heineken Champions Cup clash with Lyon and was happy to be back to club rugby.
“I’ve absolutely loved being back in blue. It’s great. I’ve had pretty much two full weeks of training leading into the game [against Benetton].
“So we got integrated quite well back into the swing of things. It was good fun to get back out into the RDS as well. I think everyone seems to have settled in.
“I remember my first year playing regularly enough for Leinster was after the last World Cup and I remember we didn’t do too well that year integrating players back in.
“We didn’t play very well in Europe. We had a tough loss against Wasps that time so it was good to get it a bit better this time,” Van der Flier said.
Getting over World Cup disappointment
While he couldn’t pin down why Leinster are doing so much better than after the 2015 World Cup, he was happy to return to a winning environment.
“It’s kind of hard for me to say really because I was one of the players who was here in Leinster the whole time so I’m not sure what the internationals did.
“There was a lot of younger players in the group then who wouldn’t have had as much experience I suppose.
“I think coming into the environment with how well the team has started off - there have been lads that are going really well here.
“Obviously I think it’s five or six wins now. There are some performances where we could have done better but we’ve got the win in all our games so far. So we’ve got a good bit of momentum,” Van der Flier commented.
Watch the highlights from Saturday's Heineken #ChampionsCup bonus-point win over Benetton: https://t.co/BfkQ2oZKku#LEIvBEN #JoinTheRoar pic.twitter.com/Hdv43IFNU1
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) November 18, 2019
The Wicklow man impressed against Benetton in Leinster’s 33-19 win over the Italians and was happy to get back out playing rugby.
“For me anyway, I was just really excited, as soon as the World Cup finished, to get playing again.
“You don’t want to wait around too much after losing a game. So I was just really keen to get back in and it’s been exciting to get back underway at the weekend,” Van der Flier explained.
Leinster take on Lyon in the next round of the Champions Cup at the Matmut Stade de Gerland at 3.15 pm Irish time this Saturday.
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