No Irish rugby player who confronted the All Blacks before the 2016 meeting in Chicago’s Soldier Field ever experienced the winning feeling. Some of the greats suffered on numerous occasions: Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell, Ronan O’Gara et al. Then along comes a 22-year-old in just his third Test and beats them at the first attempt.
“Yeah, it was an unbelievable experience. It was very surreal, to be honest,” recalls Josh van der Flier of that momentous 40-29 win over the All Blacks nine years ago. “Even being in camp was fairly new to me.”
“I don’t know if I contributed a huge amount,” he adds modestly when speaking to the media inside the SeatGeek Stadium, about half an hour southwest of the city.
He’d only made his Test debut, along with Ultan Dillane and Stuart McCloskey, the previous February in Twickenham and won a
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