Josh van der Flier pointed to excellent Leinster preparation after they shot the lights out against Harlequins in Croke Park. The round of 16 match ended 62-0 for the home side with the Irish openside flanker highly visible throughout and picking up the man of the match award.
“Yeah, I thought we prepped really well,” said Van der Flier. “Obviously it’s always tricky with a lot of the squad away in South Africa. I was home in Dublin with a lot of the lads who played today and we were obviously training away and we got some great training under the belt last week, catching up with the coaches and getting the calls back in your head and changing from from the Irish system of calling back to Leinster.
“So, I thought it was two really good weeks of training, lads were quickly clicking well, particularly this week every training seemed to get a bit better and better and more cohesive and yeah, it was a pleasing performance.
“Leo [Cullen]mentioned the start of the game, there wasn’t much in it at all and I thought that defensive set we had, if they score there, they had the chance to score maybe two or three tries, then it’s a very different game. I think that good defensive set at the start kicked us off for a good performance.”
[ Leinster 62 Harlequins 0: As it happenedOpens in new window ]
Van der Flier got his hands on the ball from the very beginning of the match and was an excellent contributor to Leinster’s dominant breakdown play, which caused Harlequins all sorts of problems, especially in the second half. He also grabbed one of the 10 tries, when he mauled the ball over from an attacking lineout. It was a game that he seemed to be enjoying.
“Yeah, it was nice to get the ball a few times. It’s kind of the way some games go, some games the ball comes your way a lot, some days it doesn’t. There was a huge amount of good work from the forwards and then backs getting a good bit of space and width, and I managed to find myself in places where I had one-on-ones or a bit of space. Yeah, it was enjoyable to get on the ball a bit, some good attacking work from all the lads.”
The 60-point win will add to Leinster confidence as they face into a short week and a home quarter-final on Friday night in Aviva Stadium. But Van der Flier cautioned against a one-sided view of the game and called on his team-mates to mentally balance the score and to remember the scrambling and tough work they had to get through in a competitive opening 10 minutes.
“Well, it obviously gives you great confidence, to be honest, when you manage to put a good few points on the board,” said Van der Flier.
“I think mentally there’s always a threat of forgetting how hard we had to work during the week to get there and there’s a threat of forgetting the first 10/20 minutes when we had to work unbelievably hard to keep them out.
“You have to balance it mentally, take the confidence in a positive way and also make sure you’re switched on and ready for a game. Because some games go like that and they’re high-scoring and some games, for whatever reason, can just as easily be very tight and things go the other way. So, we’ll be ready for anything and start again on Monday with a big week’s prep.”
Cullen added that it was as big a win as Leinster could have hoped for, 10 tries and zero points against.
“There was some really pleasing bits of play,” said the Leinster coach. “We had to weather a bit of a storm at the start. Quins did come quick out of the blocks and we were a little bit inaccurate in those first 10 minutes.
“We scored the try and then went the other end and scored again, and that’s the sucker punch you really want to give teams, particularly when you’re playing at home. Lots of really positive groundwork in terms of strong carries, making good decisions on the ball, and then as we build the lead there’s a lot more space in the second half.
“You could see all the bench guys who were mad keen to come on and make an impact in a positive way. It was a good 80-minute performance from us and that’s pleasing. That’s what we’ll need moving into the next round.”
