'It’s a funny feeling. You feel like you're kind of abandoning the lads'

Josh van der Flier says it feels like he and Leinster’s other Ireland internationals are “abandoning” the province after a bruising 31–14 defeat to Munster at Croke Park.

The flanker is one of 21 Leinster players called into Andy Farrell’s squad for the upcoming Autumn Internationals, but their departure comes after a third loss in four URC games for Leo Cullen’s side.

“Yeah, it’s tough,” said van der Flier. “It’s a funny feeling. You feel like you’re kind of abandoning the lads after a tough loss like that – you’re just disappearing for training camp.”

Cullen told his players after the game that the trip to Zebre this weekend represents a chance for others to step up, but van der Flier admitted the timing makes it difficult.

“Leo mentioned it in the changing room afterwards that it’s a brilliant opportunity for a lot of lads to get a crack at Zebre this weekend and right a few things we didn’t do well, but it is tricky,” he said. “Next time we’ll be back together as a full group is probably Harlequins (in the Champions Cup in December), so it’s not ideal.”

“As an individual, for me going into Irish camp now, you’re thinking, ‘What could I have done better?’ and it’s definitely a lot of motivation to play the next game, whatever that is. But yeah, it’s a tricky part of the season.

“We’re very lucky in that we don’t have these conversations too many times in a season, which is obviously good. But we’ve had a few of them now to start the season, so it’s definitely a different position to be in, but we’ll have to keep our heads up and get on with it.”

Van der Flier said the start of the campaign has felt “quite disjointed” due to the number of players returning late from summer tours, but insisted that couldn’t be used as an excuse.

“It was obviously a few lads’ first games (on Saturday), it’s definitely been a different year in that way,” he said. “And especially the amount of lads that were away quite late into the summer – the Lions lads, Irish lads, and the lads who were training, so it’s been very kind of some lads in, some lads out.

“Obviously the group goes off to South Africa and a lot of us were still doing pre-season training, so it has been quite disjointed. But I don’t think we can take that as an excuse.”

Captaining Leinster in Jack Conan’s absence, van der Flier reflected that he might have handled moments in the Munster game differently.

“Could I have maybe messaged to calm lads down or changed the messaging or something, that’s something I’m aware of,” he said. “We were playing pretty well in the first half, other than those breakaway tries, but it probably comes down to having a bit better composure.”

“So we spoke about it at half-time, that we probably just went away from the basics, holding onto the ball, going through the phases. We probably tried to force it a bit too much and the second half was a bit better, but we just couldn’t break down the defence.”

Looking ahead to Ireland duty, the 2022 World Player of the Year said the national coaches would manage the physical load well after a fragmented start to the season.

“The coaches normally do it really well in Irish camp anyway,” van der Flier said. “I’d say we’ll work hard from a fitness point of view and then, it’s actually good having those two weeks for a bit of continuity and that kind of thing.

“So it should be good in that way. It’s obviously tricky for lads, there’s a point where you’re really fresh and it’s great and then there’s a point where you would like more game time, but hopefully we can find the balance anyway.”

And after praising Tadhg Beirne’s performance in the Munster win, van der Flier added:

“He was very, very good, put in a really good performance. His first game back as well, I believe. He’s been playing brilliantly in fairness to him. So, nice to have him on the team.”