Josh van der Flier's career comes full circle as Lions held training camp at boyhood club

UCD holds a special place in van der Flier’s heart. It was here that he made his mark as a raw but relentless openside flanker, balancing rugby with his studies while building the foundations of a professional career with his province of Leinster. His time in UCD’s colours not only shaped him on the field but instilled the work ethic and humility that continue to define his game today.

“2015 was probably the last time I played here,” he recalled. “That season was such a big part of my development.”

The Lions set up their pre-tour base at UCD, the same grounds where van der Flier cut his teeth as a young player, it was a homecoming that struck a deeply emotional chord before the Lions jetted off to Australia.

“We trained here on Tuesday and it was pretty incredible,” he said. “It was the first time I’d properly been back here, in terms of playing a bit of rugby, since I left. You walk into the changing rooms, and suddenly you’re thinking back a few years ago when I was just playing for UCD. It’s pretty special.”

Van der Flier, now 73 caps deep for Ireland and a URC champion with Leinster, hasn’t played on that pitch since the 2014/15 season, but some of the personnel have remained the same. “John Hammond, who was team manager when I was here, is still around,” he noted. “It just adds to how surreal it is.”

Van der Flier's Lions call-up came during a whirlwind end-of-season period, which saw him juggling knockout rugby with Leinster while trying to keep his mind off potential selection. “We lost to Northampton [in the Champions Cup] and then we were playing in Zebre in two days time, and people were asking about Lions tickets. I literally said, ‘I’m not doing anything until I’m finished,’” he recalled. “It’s only really been the last few days it’s sunk in.”

That sense of unfinished business came with its own risks. A minor hamstring scare threatened to derail his chances, especially nerve-wracking considering he’d never suffered a hamstring injury before. “I got a knee in the back of my leg, it was just a little tweak,” he said. “But I’d never had anything like that, so it was the unknown that worried me. Thankfully, it cleared up fast.”

The Dublin camp has allowed van der Flier to enjoy some home comforts amid the intensity of Lions prep. Van der Flier is joined by 11 of his Leinster teammates, a cohort of the Ireland coaching staff, and the back row made the most of the odd lunch break with his wife in the Irish capital.

“It’s funny — for the Scottish, English and Welsh lads, it felt like they were on tour already. For us Irish lads, we were five minutes down the road,” he said with a smile.

On the field, adapting to the Lions' systems hasn’t been a huge stretch. According to van der Flier, the convergence of coaching styles across the four nations has smoothed the learning curve. “A lot of teams play similarly now — it’s mostly the terminology that’s different,” he said. “I’ve got a good grasp of it now, just haven’t had a chance to run through it much yet.”

As van der Flier settles into Lions life, he can’t help but reflect on childhood dreams coming to life. He remembers watching the 2005 Lions tour on VHS at his grandparents’ house, in what was one of the few places he could access the coverage.

“We didn’t have the TV channels at home,” he laughed. “We’d recorded over a family video by accident. I watched those Lions games over and over — it was either that or Star Wars.”

Asked if he ever imagined himself in the red jersey, he admitted: “It probably wasn’t something I verbalised as a kid. But you’d watch a game, then go straight out into the garden and pretend to be someone playing for Ireland or the Lions.”

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