Sheahan gunning for role in showdown

FOUR years ago at the World Cup in Australia, Frankie Sheahan was a member of a group known as the Terrigal Five.

It was a reference to the failure of any of the quintet to even get as far as the replacements panel in any of the six games.

It wasn’t a fate the 31-year-old Cork man wanted to suffer again.

Accordingly, he is more than pleased and relieved to sit on the bench in Friday night’s all-important clash with France in the Stade de France.

He’s there largely because Rory Best has been ruled out by a hand injury but that is only a ‘by the way’ where Sheahan is concerned and his desire to get directly involved in the action at some time is only too apparent.

“I was disappointed for the first match or two but it’s fantastic to get the chance now,’’ he says. “There was a group of eight of us who trained really hard with Michael McGurn (the squad’s conditioning and fitness coach). I was rooming with Alan Quinlan and he kept me going, as I did him, and I’ve now got the break and I’m delighted.

“There’s a good feeling in the squad in spite of what’s happened so far. Because we were perceived to be that much stronger than Namibia and Georgia, I think we chased the bonus point too early, trying things off first and second phase that you wouldn’t normally do and they didn’t come off.

‘‘Basically all of a sudden the crowd get behind the underdogs and you’re in a dogfight.”

In spite of what some might think, being a member of a squad preparing for a World Cup can be a bit of a drag. Before coming to Bordeaux at all, they were in camp at home for weeks on end and that’s not easy for a married man and the father of a five-month-old boy.

So it has been a source of delight for Frankie that his wife Norma and young Frank are in this part of the world on holiday. They have been able to meet up from time to time and watched Sunday’s All-Ireland together on television.

It would be even better, of course, if the side began to produce the kind of form that made them a worthwhile outside bet for a big World Cup before the warm-up matches began.

Uncertainty crept in after the losses to Scotland and Italy and gave way to serious doubt after the abject performances against Namibia and Georgia.

But Sheahan insists they have dealt with all of that.

“All that matters is Friday night,’’ he declared. “It’s a winner-take-all situation. There is a bit of fear that we haven’t been firing on all cylinders but fear can be good and can bring the best out of us come Friday night. The one positive I would take out of that match last week is that we didn’t lose it. I think the boys did extremely well when the Georgians got their dander up in the last few minutes and threw everything at us and it could have gone horribly wrong.

“We got the four points out of it, okay, we would have hoped for five but that’s it and it’s now forgotten. There’s a good squad there, one that came close to winning the grand slam and you don’t become a bad team in a couple of months. It’s not as if guys are drinking and smoking or whatever.”

When asked at Monday’s press conference if the side was in crisis, Eddie O’Sullivan accepted that this was more or less the case. Indeed, the comment made one or two headlines in yesterday’s French newspapers but Frankie Sheahan, for one, doesn’t see things in that light at all.

“Far from it, our backs are to the wall a small bit, there’s no hiding away from that and guys aren’t hiding away from that but we want a big performance against the French,’’ he argued.

“Obviously there’s a bit of nervous tension and that little bit of fear that I spoke about, which is no harm going into a big game. You’re going into the lion’s den and there’s no place for passengers. I think the morale is building and it’s going to come right on Friday night.’’