Better late than never, Dan Sheehan sure picks them. Of the 18 players in the Irish squad who’d never played in a Rugby World Cup before, his injured foot delayed his debut until this, of all games. Safe to say he’ll never forget it.
Best of all, in his 27 minutes on the pitch, Sheehan looked as strong and as fit as ever, and his darts were on the money. Great news for him, and great news for Ireland.
“Yeah, no complaints at all getting through that game,” he said contentedly. “I think the lads have done great to get me back, I was a bit worried after the England game that I might be missing out on a few more games than this, but they worked to get me back.”
When Sheehan injured his right foot hacking a loose English line-out downfield six weeks ago, he shared the fears that it might have scuppered his first World Cup.
[ Five things we learned from Ireland’s 13-8 win over South AfricaOpens in new window ]
“When I was coming off that pitch against England, I thought I was done,” he admitted in the underground Stade de France mixed zone after Ireland’s win over South Africa. “But they made sure that every avenue was looked at to make sure I could get back and we haven’t had any setbacks at all, so everything is going really smoothly,” Sheehan added, admitting that it had been “tough slogging around doing individual sessions”.
It’s certainly not a match or an occasion he’ll ever forget.
“I’d say it was the best atmosphere I’ve ever played in so far. To see the amount of Irish people behind us, who paid a lot of money to come over and all my mates have been planning this trip for two or three years now, it has been a long time.
“I remember thinking I didn’t even know who was in our group two years ago, they all knew exactly. There’s been a lot of planning for the Irish supporters and it’s great to see them all out here.”
Many of his family and friends were among the enormous and vocal Green Army, and there’s a part of him that was a tad envious of them.
“The Aviva at the moment only fits 50,000 but I’d say there were more than 50,000 Irish there, we could definitely hear them. We’ve obviously stayed a bit outside Paris so we haven’t seen a whole lot of the crowd, but I had plenty of friends there and everywhere you looked I knew someone in the crowd and you could definitely hear them.
“So, I’d say the middle of Paris might be lively tonight and I’m jealous I’m not involved,” he said with a wide, wry grin.
To begin with, Sheehan was among them to some extent, given he had another watching brief for 53 minutes before making his introduction to the tournament. And Ireland’s lineout woes made for particularly interesting if disconcerting viewing.
“South Africa are one of the best teams in the world as well, especially around the lineout so we were expecting them to put our lineout under pressure, they do it to every other team as well.
“I think the main one was not to let it rattle us. We came in at half time and it was just trust our process, we don’t need to change anything and we keep doing the same things they’re obviously going to get it right a few times, like we get it right a few times. I don’t think it rattled us too much though we definitely needed to sort of get that momentum changed.”
While Ireland problem-solved and stayed composed throughout, in some rugby matches more than others it comes down to rolling with the punches and rolling the sleeves up, and that was assuredly true of this bruising game.
“Yeah, whatever team you come up against you stick to your own processes. Obviously South Africa put up a massive physical challenge. I think we just battened down the hatches and trusted in our own performances over the last few games.
“We trust our plan, I think it’s working well, so I don’t think we need to change or be scared by any other plan. Just full trust in our own plan.”
The pre-match narrative had focussed excessively on the Boks’ 7-1 split, but there was no denying the impact of all the Irish replacements, which fully justified Andy Farrell’s faith in a more orthodox in a 5-3 configuration.
“We know that it was going to be a game of two halves, they’d bring on a fresh pack. But the plan was still the same, just made sure that the lads who came off the bench were providing energy and making sure they brought the lads who were doing the full 80 with them, making sure you don’t give away a few penalties.
“I thought our plan worked well today,” added Sheehan in acknowledging the role in preparations of the non-playing members of the wider squad. “Obviously they had a few things that we hadn’t seen, like we brought to the game as well. But I thought we did a good job of making sure all areas were marked, especially in those pressure moments on our 5m line.”
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