Fears for Bealham but Sheehan and Conan set for Boks return

BACK IN CONTENTION: Ireland's Dan Sheehan. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Ireland are confident Dan Sheehan and Jack Conan will finally be fit to make their first appearances of the World Cup in this Saturday night’s Pool B crunch match with South Africa.

Both forwards have been sidelined with foot injuries sustained in pre-season but have returned to full training with Andy Farrell’s squad in recent days and attack coach Mike Catt said he expected the pair to be in the selection mix to take on the world champions.

Hooker Sheehan has not played since the first half of Ireland’s summer victory over England in Dublin on August 19 while No.8 Conan pulled up in the opening period of the first summer series game against Italy on August 5.

Though Sheehan sat out last Friday’s eve of match training session at Nantes’ Stade de la Beaujoire, Catt said: “Dan has trained with us the last couple of days, he’s looking good. Again, I think it’s his return to play. But I think he’ll do everything with us.

“(Monday) is going to be very, very light anyway, he’ll be able to do all the walk-throughs and stuff. But we’re confident that he is going to be available for selection, come Saturday.” 

Catt also backed Conan to slot straight back into the system, whether as a starter or off the bench.

“The nice thing about Jack is Jack is a fantastic footballer and a good athlete as well, whether he’s missed a little bit or not is irrelevant for him. I think he’s got a lot in the tank in terms of his fitness and ability and when he comes back into it, I think it will be pretty seamless too.” 

Ireland have one definite injury concern from Saturday night’s 59-16 win over Tonga, tighthead prop replacement Finlay Bealham having failed to return from a Head Injury Assessment on 50 minutes, a removal that forced starting number three Tadhg Furlong to play 70 minutes having initially been taken off at the start of the second half.

Otherwise Catt said it was a case of extremely sore bodies following a tough physical workout with the Tongans.

Player of the match and double try scorer Bundee Aki certainly appeared to have been in the wars as he continued his excellent start to the tournament, taking his tally to four tries from two matches.

Catt said: “He’s grand. Bundee was sore after last week’s game as well and wrapped up for two days and then all of a sudden he performed like he did on the weekend. We’re expecting the same again. He’s getting through a tonne of work obviously and he’s playing exceptionally well with the amount of hits he took yesterday he’s going to feel a bit sore but we’ll give him time to recover this week for the big battle on the weekend.”