Dan Sheehan the hybrid hooker who can play centre and dreams of kicking drop goals

Telegraph

2 days ago

Dan Sheehan is one of those sickeningly talented individuals who can turn his hand to pretty much anything.
He is a golfer with a single-figure handicap, a hooker who according to his coach Simon Easterby could fill in at flanker or centre – and he's now captain of the Lions in his first appearance.
But the 26-year-old could easily have been lost from the game after being passed over by Leinster's senior academy after coming out of school. It has taken a series of sliding-doors moments for him to be leading the Lions against Western Force on Saturday. 'It says a lot about him because you don't make these decisions lightly,' Lions head coach Andy Farrell said of his decision to appoint Sheehan in the absence of Maro Itoje. 'To have the special honour to captain the British and Irish Lions must be amazing for Dan and his family. They must be bursting with pride, but it's well earned, obviously.'
School days in Romania fostered versatility
To rewind slightly, Sheehan attributes much of his skill-set to multi-sport background which was honed in, of all places, Romania while his father, Barry, was selling Heineken in Eastern Europe. Rugby was not on the curriculum at the American international school that he attended, but pretty much everything else was. 'We were playing all sorts of different sports like baseball, basketball, volleyball,' Sheehan said this week. 'I've always enjoyed PE class, playing any sport. Badminton, whatever. That definitely impacted my skill-set and being comfortable doing anything. My parents were big on just giving anything a lash.'
Sheehan was already rugby mad by this point and even without any organised games in Romania would spend hours at a time practising his line-out throwing with his brother Bobby in their garden. Returning to Ireland, Sheehan enrolled at Clongowes Wood College and was on the books of Leinster's wider academy.
However, despite his obvious potential, Sheehan was not selected for a senior contract, in large part because Ronan Kelleher, another Lions hooker, was in the same academy intake. So instead, Sheehan joined Trinity College under head coach Tony Smeeth. 'He has had a different journey from most of the Leinster lads,' Smeeth said. 'He ended up missing out so he came and played two full seasons for us. I remember they knew they had something but there was just not space for him. It is part of the issue that everyone talks about how great Leinster's academy is, they don't always make the right calls. Tadhg Beirne trained for nothing in the Leinster academy until Ruddock picked him up for Scarlets. Just don't make decisions on lads so early.'
Leinster academy rejection proved the making of Sheehan
At this stage, Sheehan was Ireland's fifth choice Under-20 hooker but a couple of injuries at the 2018 Junior World Championship resulted in him receiving a call-up. Yet Sheehan himself suffered an injury at the tournament which meant he was allowed to stay in Leinster's wider sub academy to complete his rehab. 'He just trained for nothing or got expenses,' Smeeth said.
Sheehan quickly started turning heads with his performances in the All Ireland League for Trinity. 'I remember a couple of games where we were down in Limerick and we were struggling and he was straight out of school, butting heads,' Smeeth said. 'We won the [Under-20s] All-Ireland Championship and he was scoring tries for fun. He was probably 118kg, but was running in tries from the halfway line. You just don't get that. He had ball skills of a centre. I used to ring the [Leinster] academy director, Noel McNamara, who actually taught him at school, and said:'Why aren't you looking at this guy?''
Cue another sliding-doors moment as Eoghan Clarke chose to join Munster, opening up a spot for Sheehan to come into Leinster's senior set-up. Even then Sheehan had to wait his turn and was back out on loan at Lansdowne where he was tutored in the art of line out throwing by Mike Ruddock, the former Wales head coach.
Once he broke through at Leinster, Sheehan has barely looked back, scoring two tries on his debut against Zebre in October 2020. Little more than a year later, he had won his first Ireland cap and bagged his first try just a couple of weeks later against Argentina. His try-scoring record is simply ridiculous. For Ireland, he has scored 15 tries in 32 matches; for Leinster 45 in 70, a tally that most wings would be happy with, let alone a front rower. Along with Kelleher and Codie Taylor, Sheehan is part of a new breed of hookers who have helped to redefine what is expected of front-three forwards.
'I enjoy playing attacking rugby in the loose, whether it be on the edges or through the middle,' Sheehan said. 'It would be a shame if I constricted that into a traditional tight-five hooker style of play. It's definitely something I can make sure I bring out on to a pitch, the things I enjoy and I'm good at. Growing up we had the likes of Keith Wood who played differently. He would put boot on the ball… drop-goals… I'll fit a drop-goal into my career at some point.'
It is almost 12 months to the day that Sheehan ruptured his ACL playing for Ireland against South Africa and even by the standards of modern medicine, his return in time for this year's Six Nations was remarkable. 'I remember speaking to my dad almost straight away and almost thinking the worst and saying how horrible the timing is, but it ended up probably being the best timing if you were going to do it,' Sheehan said. 'If you were going to miss six months, I missed the right six months.'
Almost inevitably, Sheehan marked his return for Leinster with a pair of tries before going on to score five tries for Ireland in this year's Six Nations. Asked about Easterby's assertion that he could fill in at centre or in the back row, Sheehan is far from daunted by the prospect.
'It is a conversation that crops up through the years whether we go for a 5/3 or a 6/2 split on the bench, and the coach will go 'if the s--- hits the fan you might need to jump into the back row',' Sheehan said. 'That's something I'll relish. It wouldn't faze me too much, and I'd have a bit of free licence if I was thrown into the back row. Give it a lash, trust your instincts. I would back myself [at centre]. We'll see on the pitch!'