Dan Sheehan has no issue with Henry Pollock's Aussie riling comments
The Ireland hooker is expected to be named by head coach Andy Farrell on Thursday morning in the starting front row for the first Test against Australia at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium. One of the safer bets for selection given his barnstorming comeback from knee reconstruction following last summer's Test series with the Springboks in South Africa and his electric start to the 2025 tour when he scored the first try on Australian soil in the first minute against Western Force, the 26-year-old was nevertheless as hungry for recognition as the next man in Farrell's touring party.
'It's just an exciting week,' Sheehan said. 'These are the three games you think about when you talk about a tour. Everyone has been trying to put their best foot forward to be selected and it is a bit of an anxious wait to see what the selection is, but all we can do is put our best foot forward in training and do what's best for the team as a collective.
'Everyone has gone up another level, and the hunger is there to make sure you're on the team-sheet and produce a win on Saturday.'
That Pollock, the 20-year-old back-rower, raised the temperature of the tour by getting Aussie hackles up with his statement of intent that a 3-0 series clean sweep was 'on the table' as the 2025 tourists bid to become the best Lions team ever merely cements that motivation with the camp, for Sheehan at least.
'Every team in the world wants to be the best team they've featured in. It hasn't changed in my mindset.
'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.'
Now it has been put out there, and doubtless used as motivation in the home dressing room, Sheehan's attitude is to roll the sleeves up and get on with delivering on the bravado.
"I suppose it gives you a responsibility to go out and do it. No one is going to shy away from it, our aim is a Test series win and I don't think anyone should be afraid of saying it.
"At the end of the day, everyone knows it. I don't think any team really goes in saying 'oh yeah, one game at a time', 'hopefully we'll win the next one, the next one'... there's a clear gameplan to have a dominant series and win.
"It's the way I was brought up in my career, to be very clear in what you want out of a season or a campaign and then you have to attack it. There's a bit of a responsibility on you, you've said it out loud so you have to go do it."
As for riling the Wallabies, Sheehan was expecting a tough series of encounters anyway.
"We've seen it the last couple of years, they've probably been written up as underdogs and they've put in some massive performances, shaken some big teams.
"So, yeah I think of course there's going to be a bit of fire and they'll feed into that.
"But that's out of our control in some ways and we need to make sure we come out firing and stamp our gameplan on them early.
"I'm sure there's going to be some big collisions, some big heated moments in the game. We need to be ready for that and get back to process."
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Extra.ie
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The 42
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