Dan Sheehan: Leinster dozen avoid being 'laughing stock' of Lions camp by winning URC title

CHAMPIONS: Dan Sheehan and captain Jack Conan of Leinster celebrate with the URC trophy. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.

Dan Sheehan and his 11 fellow URC title winners will stride into British & Irish Lions camp on Monday delighted to have avoided a walk of shame as losing finalists as they begin their summer on tour among these islands’ best of the best.

The dozen-strong contingent from Leinster are set to join up with the tourists at University College Dublin for a week’s training ahead of Friday night’s pre-tour international against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium.

The Leinster players, as well as a trio of English Premiership finalists, will link with the 24 players who have been training together for a fortnight already, the last six days of which were in Portugal.

They flew into Dublin from Faro on Sunday night with Farrell set to name his team to face the Pumas on Wednesday afternoon and hooker Sheehan betrayed some relief his first interactions as a Lion will be as a URC champion following Saturday’s comprehensive 32-7 Grand Final defeat of the Bulls at Croke Park.

“It would have been a sickener to go into camp there with nothing after missing the first two weeks, coming away with nothing and we'd probably be the laughing stock of the group again,” Sheehan said.

“But we've got the medal now, we'll enjoy tonight and tomorrow and please god be in camp Monday.”

The Ireland front-rower, favourite to be the Lions' starting hooker in next month’s opening Test of a three-match series against Australia, expressed his gratitude that the Leinster players had been allowed to focus on winning their domestic championship before turning their attentions to the summer tour Down Under.

“We were so hungry as a group, to get silverware, to win the URC, that we parked it (the Lions) pretty easy, I think.

“We were left alone by the Lions, we didn't hear a thing from them which is exactly the way we wanted it to be, and we could just solely focus on the URC. We knew we needed to get a job done and focus solely on the URC and if you look too far into the future you'll slip up.

“We did a good job as a group, addressing it early when it was first announced, say congrats and move on, we're committing to this fully. There's too many special people in the group to look past it. Really rewarding in that sense.”

The 26-year-old has won a Grand Slam, two Six Nations and three Triple Crowns as an Ireland international but Saturday’s URC final victory brought his first medal as a Leinster player and it meant an awful lot to the Dubliner.

“Yeah, the first one that I feel properly a part of. It was definitely on my mind over the last couple of years that you work so hard during the season and you're spending the majority of your time with this group of players and, you know, it hasn't changed a whole lot.

“So the hunger was there today and I think you saw from the first whistle. Incredibly enjoyable, incredibly rewarding. That feeling after the final whistle went for Cian Healy, for Ross (Byrne), for Liam (Turner) and for Rob (Russell), all the lads leaving us.

It gives us a boost, I think, gets the monkey off the back and yeah, incredibly rewarding.”

Sheehan paid a special tribute to departing fly-half Ross Byrne, who will join English Premiership club Gloucester this summer having come off the bench at Croke Park to replace Sam Prendergast and kicked the final points of the match as he converted academy scrum-half and fellow replacement Fintan Gunne’s 72nd minute try to huge acclaim from the 46,127 supporters at GAA headquarters.

"Ross is an unbelievable player, an unbelievable professional, and the standards he drives are like no one else in our group at the minute.

“I think he gets a hard time over the last 10 years and he doesn't give a fuck, really, and he just gets on with it. And he loves Leinster, and he loves winning, and he loves the group.

“I was happy for him today. He got a good reception today from the crowd and he'll be truly missed as a person in the changing room as someone that drives what we try to do incredibly well, similar to a sort of Johnny Sexton character, of just being ruthless with what we expect of each other and holding people accountable. But also a great man off the off the field as well.”