Injured or not, Sheehan 'is type of player' worthy of World Cup call 

VITAL COG: Dan Sheehan of Ireland goes down with an injury during the Bank of Ireland Nations Series match between Ireland and England. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Ireland will not cast aside injured hooker Dan Sheehan form their World Cup plans, even if he will not pass fit for the pool stages.

Such is the regard in which the 24-year-old is held by the Irish management that the foot injury he sustained in last Saturday’s 29-10 victory over England will not keep him out of his first World Cup, which for the Grand Slam winners gets underway in 18 days against Pool B minnows Romania.

Sheehan did not travel with the bulk of the Ireland training squad to Biarritz on Sunday ahead of this Saturday’s final warm-up Test against Samoa in Bayonne. 

The Irish medics kept the hooker back in Dublin along with loosehead prop Dave Kilcoyne (hamstring) and back-rower Jack Conan (foot) to continue their rehabilitation programmes as head coach Andy Farrell ploughs on with preparations for the tournament and makes his final selection decisions ahead of his final 33-man squad announcement next Monday.

Yet attack coach Mike Catt said he considered Sheehan worthy of selection even if it transpired they would be a hooker short of options for the first four or five weeks of the competition.

“Definitely. Why not? You definitely would do,” Catt said yesterday after the morning training session at Bayonne’s Stade Jean Dauger.

“He is that type of player but, again, let’s wait for the diagnosis. We don’t know what it is just yet so we’ll wait and see. But we’ve got people on standby and players that know the system, know how we want to play, but yes he would be a big loss if he wasn’t coming.” 

Catt said Sheehan’s situation would have more clarity in the coming days, following his visit to a specialist in Dublin.

"We still haven't got confirmation on what it is. He's still seeing a specialist, obviously he's being rehabbed back in Dublin so hopefully Andy (Farrell) will have a bit more of an answer tomorrow.

"As it currently stands he's seeing a specialist and getting the proper treatment accordingly, really… we'll have a much better idea tomorrow or on Thursday in terms of where he's at and when his back to return dates are.” 

Ireland have brought Munster’s uncapped Diarmuid Barron to southern France this week to augment their hooking contingent with Ronan Kelleher, Rob Herring and Tom Stewart all part of the original extended training squad.

Kelleher missed last Saturday’s England win at Aviva Stadium with a minor hamstring problem and may not be risked as a starter against the Samoans.

Yet despite the options, the uncertainty remains frustrating in relation to making those final decisions on the make-up of the tournament squad, as Catt conceded.

“One hundred per cent it does. It does. You can look on the positive side, it gives somebody else an opportunity to put their hand up and stuff. Yeah it does, but every team is dealing with that. France have had to deal with it, England. It’s just the way the beast is unfortunately. So, we’ve got ours to deal with too.” 

These are the sorts of problems which head coach Farrell embraces with relish, hammering home his no excuses mantra at every opportunity. It is why Ireland spent a week training in Portugal earlier this month in extreme heat and is exactly the purpose of this week’s pre-tournament visit to France. 

Farrell has designed the week to mimic a tournament week in terms of travel days between training bases and matchday venues, the temperatures, and Saturday evening’s kick-off time, 8:45pm local.

And on the day World Rugby released its match referee postings for France 2023, there was also synching of match officials with Saturday’s ref Wayne Barnes also appointed to take charge of Ireland versus Tonga in Nantes on September 16.

With Samoa lined up for this fixture as valuable game prep for fellow Pacific Islanders Tonga, circumstances have truly aligned for Ireland this weekend.

“Same time, same heat, same pretty much everything so it’s been great for us in terms of a World Cup preparation, only having certain people in changing-rooms,” Catt said. “The detail that has gone into it has been very good. Who can and can’t get into changing-rooms, stuff like that, there’s certain limits.

“We’ve really gone exactly how the Tongan week will be, so there won’t be any hiccups come Tonga.” Come September the chances of a heatwave are thankfully less likely but today’s training session in Bayonne has been scheduled for the morning, before the expected temperatures of 40C are reached. Not that anyone is looking for excuses.

“It is what it is, and you’ve got to deal with it,” Catt said. “We had a great week down in Portugal, or a very tough week, and that was extremely hot. The guys have trained exceptionally well through those eight/nine weeks, so the heat shouldn’t be a problem for us.”