Dan Sheehan refreshed and raring to go for semi-final showdown

There will again be a fear that the Leinster frontline squad will be a little undercooked when they meet Northampton in Saturday’s Champions Cup semi-final at Croke Park (kick-off 5.30pm).

Rested from the trek to South Africa, they will be playing their first game since the quarter-final win over La Rochelle three weeks ago. But listening to Dan Sheehan there is little doubt that this is, again, the eminently preferable choice.

As the Leinster and Ireland hooker points out, the 30-man squad which went to South Africa only returned to Ireland on Monday and the squad’s HPC in UCD on Tuesday.

Sheehan was among the squad which remained in Dublin and by way of contrast he noted: “We have the luxury of having a nice deep squad where we are managed and a few lads were held back so we could just purely focus on Northampton.

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“We got a whole week last week of just focusing on the Champions Cup semi-final. So, hopefully, now we need to use that. We can’t let that go to waste. The whole idea of it is that we kick on and use it and get practice.”

Although Northampton have had two full-on Premiership games in the intervening period, Leo Cullen’s approach makes even more sense in a World Cup season, which is why Sheehan has no fears about he and his team-mates being rusty.

Northampton head coach Sam Vesty on meeting Leinster at Croke Park

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“For me personally no. I’ve played probably 20 games this year already and a lot of the lads have played a lot of rugby off the back of the Six Nations and they got a good few games before. So, I think it was quite nice to get a bit of recovery time, a bit of time away.”

Indeed, Sheehan has played 21 games this season, including four off the bench, albeit he has less minutes under his belt so far this season than he had going into last season’s semi-final against Toulouse – 1,030 minutes as opposed to 1,202. Admittedly, there is more of the URC season to come.

“I went down to Connemara with a couple of my mates and played a bit of golf, took it handy for a couple of days and just sort of recharged the batteries and went again,” said Sheehan. “I felt ready to go, bouncing back in and couldn’t wait to get back stuck in. Whereas if you’re bouncing week after week, it can be tough.”

It comes as no surprise that Sheehan can compartmentalise his life when away from the day job.

“Yeah, I find it pretty easy. It doesn’t eat away at the back of my mind too much. I feel like I have a good process about my weeks when I’m preparing for a game or when I’m off. I can sort of get away from it.

“And my family and friends are quite good at just being able to do normal things, play golf or have a few beers or whatever.”

It’s clear that with the help of performance coach Declan Darcy, the former Leitrim and Dublin Gaelic footballer, Leinster have also addressed the different mental challenges of hosting an 82,000-plus sell-out at an unfamiliar stadium rather than the more familiar Aviva.

“It is huge for the club,” Sheehan admitted of their first game at the venue in 15 years. “It is hugely exciting for us to go to such a special place like that, where rugby hasn’t been played for a while. To have it sold out with 82,000 people, it is going to be immense.

“We can’t really get carried away. We talked about how a crowd will only come alive on the back of a performance and we can’t rely on a performance just coming on the back of 82,000 people showing up. So, we are focused on how we start the game, on how we can get the crowd on our side, the majority being Leinster and feeding off the energy Croke Park can give you.

“We talked a little bit about how you can’t get consumed by the idea of this big stadium with all this history, but definitely we might be able to feed off it, get some of the energy back, if the performance starts well on Saturday.”

As for Sheehan’s own Gaelic-playing days, he freely admitted: “Didn’t play it, no. Never got into it as a kid. Played one game for Clongowes against Athy, on a rugby pitch, so don’t be asking me any questions,” he implored, good-naturedly.

He and his family were living in Bucharest at the time of the 2009 semi-final against Munster and his last memory of being in Croke Park was for Ireland’s 38-18 loss to New Zealand in November 2010.

Leinster were always going to be highly motivated for a quarter-final against a La Rochelle side that had ended their Champions Cup aspirations for three seasons in a row.

But Sheehan maintained: “We quickly turned the page to Northampton. That was by no means our final but it was a must-win to get to the next stage. We have been good this year at making sure we are not getting ahead of ourselves.”

Sheehan was also grateful for having a two-week build-up to a semi-final against a side they last faced three seasons ago.

“They are a hugely attacking team. We’ve seen they can attack from anywhere,” said Sheehan, citing the set-piece try Northampton scored in the Round of 16 against Munster from inside their own 22, and their threat in transition off opposition kicks, while referencing George Furbank and Tommy Freeman.

“You hear them in the media saying they are very confident about their one-on-ones. They want to create the one-on-ones, they back their skill set.

“They have quite a dynamic pack with [Lewis] Ludlam and [Courtney] Lawes and these proper internationals. They are quite a tight-knit group, really believe in what they are doing and you see it coming off in the Premier.

“We have to make sure we don’t give them any access through discipline, don’t give them easy ball on their terms,” added Sheehan.

“One of the things we have been focusing on is just how well we can execute our game plan and how quickly we can transition between attack and defence, and defence and attack, so I think that will be massive.”

Days out from the game, Sheehan sounded so mentally refreshed by his mini-break that he seemed ready already.