The last time Josh van der Flier was captain of a team was in sixth year at Wesley College. It was cricket, not rugby. Last weekend against the Sharks, Van der Flier was captain of Leinster. A different kind of stress, one he enjoyed.
“Leo came in and he watched the end of our session and asked me at the end if I wanted to be captain for the week. So, good experience, yeah,” he says.
In August, Van der Flier, Dan Sheahan and Johnny Sexton teed off in The K Club for the Irish Open pro-am, playing with a different professional for each of the nine holes.
How are Leinster and Munster stacking up ahead of their first meeting of the season?
Another stress position, another step outside of his comfort zone. There is, he explained, a difference in the nature of the mental strain.
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When Leinster meet Munster on Saturday, it is, he says, different from golf pressure. He will know stepping on to the pitch there is the stress of winning and performing but there is no rugby skillset deficit.
Golf with people watching on a course set up for a professional tournament and that first drive, the first putt, and even for a handicap of 4.4, the lowest it has been for van der Flier, it humbles the best.
“A different kind of pressure, yeah. With rugby, I’d get myself to a place where you’re like, ‘right, I’ve done everything I can do now to play the game well. I’ve practised it, played it for years. You have a bit of reassurance behind you.
“You’ve done years of passing, years of tackling, whatever. Whereas golf is ... You don’t have a lot of good experience behind you to give you confidence. But it’s a good experience.
“Johnny has done it [before], obviously he’s used to the pressure, kicking and stuff, but he’d done a few pro rounds before, and he was brilliant. It didn’t seem to bother him too much.”
It may not sound like it, but golf is van der Flier’s peaceful space, it is his turn on, switch off and tune out zone. On Sunday after Leinster beat the Sharks 31-5 in Aviva Stadium, scoring five tries, he found himself playing golf. He’s a fan.
At The K Club he didn’t meet Shane Lowry, but Lowry spoke to the Irish team during the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. Rory McIlroy, a rugby fan and friendly with some of the Ulster players from the Darren Cave era, made his way over at the Pro-Am.
“I met Rory very briefly, came over to myself and Dan Sheehan. I’m a huge fan, yeah.
“Rugby, I find, you’re in a group but if you’re not quite mentally on it, or if you’re slightly off the pace, you can kind of get away with it most of the time.
“But in golf, if you have a mental lapse of concentration, everyone’s watching, everyone knows, and you have to keep it together. So, it’s a lot more impressive mentally, I think, than rugby would be.”
The captaincy pressure appeared to suit van der Flier, who looked physical and fresh against Sharks. The armband didn’t hold him back and he’d do it again. But it is not something he was chasing. It was not on his to-do list, or a career ambition.
The first match back was welcome and put some distance between the Lions tour, which had obvious frustrations for the Irish flanker, who was not directly involved in the Test matches against Australia.
“Yeah, it was hard to take, definitely, yeah. The goal was always to start in the Test matches,” says van der Flier.
“It was a funny one, because I remember afterwards there’s a lot of processing because obviously there was a lot time off, just thinking about things.
“If you’d said as a child or pretty much any stage all the way up to the day they named the squad, if you were just picked on the squad and played a game, you’d be like ‘brilliant’.
“But then the goal was always to play in the Test matches, so yeah, it was definitely a bit of frustration.”
Croke Park on Saturday will let van der Flier know he is home. Lights, action, no stress.
