Dan Sheehan both looks and sounds like he is ideally primed for his first British & Irish Lions Test series. Speaking to a large media corps on the balcony beside the students’ café in the Anglican Grammar Church School, aka Chuchie, which overlooks a pristine and unmarked cricket pitch, Sheehan was, in his own relaxed and assured way, already oozing focus.
At 26 and nearing the peak of his career, Sheehan also looks ready to leave a world-class imprint on this Test series. Despite missing the first half of the season with the cruciate ligament injury he sustained in South Africa just over a year ago Sheehan appears to be both ideally match-hardened and well-managed.
Since making his comeback for Leinster in late January with a two-try man of the match performance against the Stormers, Sheehan has played 17 games, six of them off the bench, amounting to 884 minutes. His try in the second minute of his Lions debut in the opening game in Australia against the Western Force, when palming Finn Russell’s crosskick inside to James Lowe and then having the strength to stay alive and take the return pass, was his 17th try of a typically productive campaign.
There are very few forwards, never mind hookers, with Sheehan’s array of abilities in addition to his superb throwing and eye for the try line. One thinks back to his stunning return to Test rugby against England last February in tandem with fellow replacement Jack Conan.
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In one move first there was the no-look tip-on for Conan’s clean break, then the right-to-left skip pass to Lowe on the left touchline and finally the support line to take the return pass and crash through English tacklers to score.
The trio were at it again in the Brumbies match; Sheehan accelerating and straightening the line before his right to left pass enabled Conan to give Lowe a clear run to the line. That would have made any centre proud, and the fending of the Brumbies’ fullback Andy Muirhead and carry up the touchline which was worthy of any right winger.
In between those two starts of an hour, Sheehan had a half-hour off the bench against the Waratahs, as Andy Farrell and co seek to ensure one of their most prized assets is fresh as well as fit for the Test series.
There has been quite a debate about what has seemed like the reduced among of public visits this playing squad have made. The Lions’ chairman and tour manager Ieuan Evans and CEO Ben Calveley led a player-less delegation to Spinal Australia Gym on Wednesday in Brisbane, after which Calveley told TV news channels of their desire to always leave a “legacy” from their tours.
But when Sheehan was asked what kind of legacy he wanted the Lions to leave his answer was quite simple. “A win.”
He expanded by saying: “It would be a good story and a good legacy to have a winning series. We haven’t delved too much into the wider picture. We did at the start when we were trying to frame the mindset, but this week has been all about Saturday, and how our prep goes into winning this game on Saturday, and we’re going to throw everything at that. There’s going to be no holding anything back, or waiting for the next two Tests. It’s all about Saturday.
“I think we’re in a good spot. Lads are hungry, and we’re expecting the Wallabies to be hungry. I think it’ll be a good Test and fireworks on Saturday.”
He also believes that winning is the best way of connecting with the seas of red due to invade Brisbane from Thursday onwards after sight-seeing in the Gold Coast to the south or Cairns to the north, and elsewhere.
“Performance is the way to do that. Yeah, we can give them a cheer and a clap after the game but ultimately that’s not what they came for, they came for a good game of rugby. If we do that, they’ll feel part of it.
“That’s a goal of ours, to make sure if we have a big crowd on Saturday which we probably will, that we bring them into the game and make it feel almost like a 50/50 game that could be anywhere in the world.
“But I still think it’s down to what we put out on the pitch, that’s how you get the crowd in behind you.”
By all accounts Farrell has generated a harmonious group but such has been the players’ bubble that Sheehan had to think long and hard about the best thing he’s done on tour before revealing it was a swim on Cottesloe beach in Perth.
“I would have said Perth was a bit dull because we were staying in the inner city but I went down on the Thursday to meet my cousin and it was absolutely lovely. It was gorgeous.” And no Sharks? “Didn’t see any,” he grinned.
Virtually every Lions coach or player has been asked to respond to Henry Pollock stating that they were seeking a 3-0 series win.
“Every team in the world wants to be the best team they’ve featured in. It hasn’t changed in my mindset,” reasoned Sheehan.
As for giving the Wallabies extra motivation, he said: “You can juice up anything, I dunno. I don’t think that’s anything too crazy. It’s obviously everyone’s goal to win a Test series, and to try to be a step beyond the last squad.
“The way rugby has evolved, every team should be better than the last, and it’s a massive goal of ours to make sure we reach our potential. I think if we do reach our potential we have the possibility to be one of the best teams. I think they’re fair comments.”
Whatever about that, Sheehan and the Lions are expecting a ferocious Australian performance for this once-in-a-career opportunity, and in the back of all Irish minds especially, there’s also the Joe Schmidt factor.
“He’ll definitely have something that he’s seen in our games in the last while that he’ll try to seek out. Whether it be set-piece or their game plan, we need to double down on our basics and make sure our game plan covers basically everything and then we have to adapt quickly on the back of things.
“I’ve never had Joe but the way some lads talk about him, he’s very detailed in precision game plan against opposition so I’ll look forward to seeing what they have. But I don’t want to get too lost into what they’ve done before because I’m pretty sure they’ll come up with something new.”
