'It was the Lions or Star Wars' - Van der Flier raring to go in Perth

The 42

23-06-2025

THEY DIDN'T HAVE all the good channels in Josh van der Flier's house when he was growing up, so he used to have to go elsewhere to watch the Lions.
The handy thing was that his grandparents had Sky and only lived across the road in Wicklow.
Good memories, although van der Flier recalls one mishap in 2005.
'We had a family video and we taped over it by mistake,' he says.
'So we used to watch that over and over again.
'We didn't have the TV channels at home, it was just cassettes. So it was either that or Star Wars or something. So I ended up watching a lot of that 2005 Lions game.'
Van der Flier is hoping this year's Lions have a better time of it in Australia than the '05 crew did in New Zealand.
He's now in Perth with Andy Farrell's squad and will almost certainly make his Lions debut on Saturday against the Western Force.
Having played in the URC final with Leinster, van der Flier didn't feature in last Friday's defeat to Argentina in Dublin before the Lions left for Australia. So he will be raring to get going this weekend.
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'It's probably the pinnacle,' says van der Flier of being a Lion.
'It's hard to compare with playing for your country but it is a very hard thing to do, so it's pretty cool.'
Van der Flier at Lions training in Hale School, Perth. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
Van der Flier missed out on selection in Warren Gatland's squad four years ago when the Lions went to South Africa.
He seemed much more of a sure thing this time around, given his excellent form for Ireland under Farrell for the past four years, but van der Flier says the squad announcement day in May was an anxious one.
'We finished training at like 1.30pm and the announcement was at 2pm,' says van der Flier.
'I didn't even bother showering, I was straight out the door because I didn't want to be there in front of loads of lads if guys didn't get picked or if I didn't.
'So I just went home. My wife actually FaceTimed me, so we watched it together.'
With the Lions announcement day involving a lengthy preamble and with the forwards and backs eventually being named alphabetically, van der Flier had a long wait.
'I was sitting there, sweating on the couch.
'You have a good idea of how squads are made up, so you obviously need specialised lineout back rows, maybe one or two sevens. And then there was like four sevens and my name hadn't been called and you think, 'Oh no,' but I made it in the end.'
Van der Flier played for Leinster against Zebre just a few days after being named in the Lions squad and admits initially 'you're probably fighting a bit mentally' to stay focused on the job at hand.
Yet the URC knock-outs made it impossible to think ahead to the Lions tour as van der Flier and Leinster narrowed in on ending their wait for silverware.
Van der Flier in UCD last week. Andrew Conan / INPHO Andrew Conan / INPHO / INPHO
The 32-year-old had a brief injury scare when he hurt his hamstring during Leinster's quarter-final win over the Scarlets.
'I had never hurt my hamstring before, but it didn't feel too bad, to be honest,' he says.
'I had no reference point. It ended up being a small little thing, I got a knee in the back of it, I think. But the unknown was still… I was hoping it was alright. Thankfully, it was.'
He missed Leinster's semi-final win over Glasgow and then returned to the starting XV for the final victory over the Bulls, scoring a try in a typically effective 80-minute performance.
That 'brilliant' success meant he was delayed in getting into Lions camp until last week. Having watched Wales' Jac Morgan get the first shot in the number seven shirt against the Pumas, van der Flier will be keen to get going this Saturday.
Tom Curry, Henry Pollock, and Ben Earl are all options at openside too, but van der Flier is a man on a mission.