Josh van der Flier reflects on Ireland's World Cup: I felt we did everything the right way

Post-mortems are never easy but Josh van der Flier is eager to slam the door shut on Ireland's World Cup heartache.

So good for so long across the course of 17 games, Andy Farrell’s men failed to live up to their own high standards when it came to the crunch in a quarter-final against New Zealand.

There was a slow start, which proved to be a killer, basic errors from players who had forgotten what it was like to knock on a ball, and a malaise that appeared to infect almost the entire squad on the night. And they still came within a score of winning.

In the normal course of events, defeats would be parsed over by players and coaches in the days after but this loss saw Ireland crash out, once again a semi-final out of reach, and any such analysis could only be deemed cruel and unusual punishment.

The 2022 World Rugby player of the year has had almost a month to reflect on what went wrong. It’s a long time in any man’s language.

So Leinster’s BKT URC clash with fourth-from-bottom Scarlets in the RDS on Saturday takes a back seat and when the 30-year-old flanker sits down for a virtual call with RTÉ Sport, there can only be one topic up for discussion.

Much as it pains the Wicklow man, one of Ireland’s stand-outs across a Grand Slam, a series win in New Zealand and the Pool B clean sweep, the wound must be cauterized.

"Straight after the game, in the changing room, Andy said a few words, I suppose summarising the World Cup and the journey that the team went on and saying goodbye to a few of the players as well," says Van der Flier of the 28-24 defeat, during which Ireland never led.

"He spoke a few nice words about them.

"Then, the day after, before we left to head home, there were a couple of words said.

"But other than that, it was