At 27, Josh van der Flier was dropped from the Ireland squad and faced an uncertain international future, before an injury re-opened the door. He has not looked back since.
Within 18 months, he was named the best rugby player on the planet and has maintained a consistent excellence that made his inclusion in The British & Irish Lions squad almost a foregone conclusion.
Now, 32, the openside flanker will head on his first Lions Tour, the latest accolade to a storied career that has come somewhat against the odds.
Van der Flier’s dream was to make the grade at Leinster, which he did in 2014.
Since then, he has racked up 73 Ireland caps, three Six Nations titles, two Grand Slams, one European Champions Cup and four PRO14 titles - not bad for a kid from a non-traditional rugby school who was deemed too small to make it.
KEEPING FAITH
Van der Flier went to school at Wesley College in south Dublin, an institution that had a rich sporting pedigree. Olympians, sailors and rugby players had passed through its walls and Van der Flier dreamt of adding his name to the illustrious honours board.
His surname soon did appear – but perhaps not the way he expected. In 2011, at the age of 14, his younger sister Julie played a one-day cricket international for Ireland against Pakistan, and, for two years, he walked past it every day.
Wesley College is not one of Dublin’s rugby powerhouses, like Blackrock College or St Michael's, and as a kid, he says, there was nothing to suggest he would become a future World Rugby Player of the Year. Indeed, he was not deemed good enough at trials for the Leinster Schools team.
Small and scrawny, he trained hard in the hope that one day he would play for Leinster, a work ethic instilled in him by his family.
Van der Flier’s paternal grandparents, Johannes and Johanna, moved from the Netherlands to Dublin in the 1950s and Johannes started a business selling radiators. It was hard work, but soon became a success.
“You get players that people talk about even when they’re in school – ‘Keep an eye on this kid, he’ll play for Ireland’. I was never, ever one of those,” he told Rugby World.
Still, he kept faith – quite literally. Religion is an important part of the Van der Flier story. He says a prayer before every game, his parents pray “a lot”, while his brother – Johan – works for a Christian group organising camps for kids, while also doing social and missionary work.
“He’s an unbelievable man,” Josh said.
“Faith is important to my family and to me. It’s part of my day-to-day life. I say a prayer before games, not because I’m praying for a good performance but because I grew up in a Christian family and it’s something I believe in.”
FIRST RESERVE
Van der Flier made his club debut for Leinster back in October 2014 against Zebre and impressed sufficiently to be handed a senior contract at the end of the season.
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt was keeping a close eye on Leinster’s latest back-row prodigy and could not resist calling him up for the 2016 Six Nations – and handed Van der Flier a Test debut against England at Twickenham that February.
Thrown in from the start to replace an injured Sean O’Brien, he acquitted himself well and played the full 80 minutes. Coincidentally, that day also marked a first Test start for a certain Maro Itoje – his Lions captain.
As Ireland were blessed with back-row options, Van der Flier was in and out of the side. O’Brien, a two-Tour Lion with five Test caps, was the established openside, while the likes of Peter O’Mahony and CJ Stander were ahead in the pecking order, and Iain Henderson would sometimes drop back from the second to back row too.
He added: “When you’re picked in the Ireland squad you’re delighted to be there, but then you’re kind of not just happy with being there, you want to play.
“It depends which way you look at it. It depends on the mood I’m in!”
Add to that, a shoulder injury in 2017 and knee injury in 2018 and he endured two disrupted Six Nations campaigns – even if the latter was sweetened by an Irish Grand Slam.
There were some memorable highs too. Van der Flier came off the bench in the famous Chicago win against New Zealand – their first ever against the All Blacks – and started in the 2018 home victory in Dublin.
THE TURNING POINT
As injuries finally caught up with O’Brien and Leinster colleague Dan Leavy saw his own career cut short, Van der Flier was the heir apparent for the No.7 jersey.
He started four out of five matches at the 2019 World Cup, and then the first three matches of the following Six Nations – scoring a try in the 24-14 home win against Wales.
But as 2020 turned into 2021, he had been usurped for both club and country by Will Connors.
“I was thinking: ‘What more can I do? I’m working on everything and still trying to improve but it’s not quite happening,” he told the Guardian.
“It was so frustrating because Will was actually playing brilliantly. But I also felt like I was playing really well. I remember at one stage he started the game and got man of the match.
“They rotated the [Leinster] team the next week and I got man of the match. But the following week they picked him to start and he played unbelievably.”
“I found it very difficult for those six months or so where he was starting ahead of me for the big games. I didn’t know how to improve.”
The 2021 Six Nations proved decisive. Van der Flier started the first two matches but defeats to Wales and France prompted a shake-up from Andy Farrell, and he was dropped from the squad and replaced by Connors.
But fate smiled down on him. Connors was injured ahead of the Round 5 game against England and Van der Flier was brought back in. He was superb in the 32-18 win and has hardly looked back ever since.
“When I think of Will, I feel it was really hard for him,” he said.
“He was starting ahead of me and then he hurt his knee. The poor man’s had injury setbacks but that gave me the opportunity to play a lot of games.”
WORLD PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Not only did he play, but Van der Flier has become a key cog in an ascending Ireland side under Andy Farrell.
In 2022, they won their first-ever series away to New Zealand, an historic achievement, with Van der Flier scoring the first try of the decisive third Test.
They then backed that up by sweeping aside Souith Africa and Australia in that year’s Autumn Nations Series, climbing to the top of the world rankings. Van der Flier was at the heart of everything they did, and the awards soon followed.
He won the Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland men's player of the year award for the 2021-22 campaign, the Ireland men's XVs Players' Player of the Year at the 2022 Rugby Players Ireland awards and – in Monaco in December – the big one: the World Player of the Year, where he became just the third Irishman after Keith Wood in 2001 and Johnny Sexton in 2018 to win.
“Dan Carter was sitting here and Conrad Smith was over there and Bryan Habana was somewhere else and it was all the great players I admired as a kid. It was unreal,” he said of the ceremony.
"I've been incredibly fortunate to have great teammates and coaches that have really pushed me on, as well as my wife and my family supported me a huge amount.
“I'm lucky to have some very experienced, top quality players and especially in my position both in Ireland and in Leinster, so I've always felt I've needed to be playing at my best the whole time or I wouldn't be playing, so that's certainly driven me on."
Away from the pitch, he seems to have things figured out too. He married long-term partner Sophie de Patoul in 2022, and has a sports management degree and a master’s in business studies.
LIONS CALLING
Van der Flier missed out on the 2021 Lions Tour, but this time he was always likely to be in contention.
In 2023, he backed up a phenomenal 2022 by helping Ireland win the Grand Slam, before winning the Player of the Series award at the 2024 Autumn Nations Series.
Then, at the O2 Arena, he heard his name called at The British & Irish Lions Squad Announcement.
"It's hard to get my head around to be honest," he told RTE.
"What's really special is you see what it means to your family and everything but even having past coaches, people who coached me in Wicklow Rugby Club, in Wesley my school, in UCD and in Leinster as well.
"It's kind of nice for what it means to everyone else. I'm delighted with myself, very happy."
