Whatever they were feeding this lad over Christmas, keep it up.
Josh van der Flier put in an epic display of tackling, breakdown work and sheer defensive grit in Leinster’s hard-fought 21-18 win over Connacht, at The RDS.
The Leinster back-row may have set a new record for most tackles in a PRO14 game since the competition began as the Celtic League back in 2001.
The 24-year-old registered an awesome 34 clean, successful tackles for his side and did not miss a single one. In total, Leinster made 208 of the 235 tackles they attempted for an 89% success rate. Van der Flier, then, made just over 16% of his team’s entire tackles at 100%.
The next closest to him on the Leinster team was the industrious Rory Molony [27] and the equally impressive Max Deegan [26] while Connacht lock James Cannon landed 18 tackles.
Match photographers Sportsfile tried their best to keep up but captured only six of the 34 tackles. We’re sure the rest are uploading as we type! Here’s a brief sample:
If a forward is having a good defensive outing, on a day of heavy traffic, they can often register anywhere between 12 and 18 successful tackles. Anything over that is damn impressive. Anything over 25 is otherworldly.
Initially, van der Flier was credited with 31 tackles. The last time such a count was seen was in 2015, when Wales lock Luke Charteris made that same number, 31, in a 23-16 over an Ireland team on the hunt for a Grand Slam.
On further review, ESPNscrum updated he stats to credit the Leinster man with three more connections. Van der Flier has definitely earned himself a refreshing drink after that performance. One wonders if he will be rested for the next home game, against Ulster, in just five days’ time.
As for the game itself, James Lowe lit up the first half with a superb offload to set up Deegan for a try but Connacht responded through Finlay Bealham.
Connacht led by a point at the break but Leinster put the squeeze on to go 21-13 ahead. Matt Healy then made it a pulsating finish with a stunning try before Leinster’s defence – including both van der Flier and Deegan – stepped up to close the game out.
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