Dan Sheehan intends to get used to 'infectious' winning feeling

British & Irish Lions' Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong celebrate winning the match. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho

A horrible sense of déjà vu engulfed Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong as the British & Irish Lions trailed Australia with the clock ticking ominously down at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

As starting front-rowers, the pair were used to watching the end games of big matches with both Leinster and Ireland but equally, they had grown weary of having their hopes of glory dashed. 

It is a long list of disappointment in the last two years, taking in the 2023 World Cup quarter-final defeat to New Zealand, two Champions Cup finals, a URC semi-final and just two months ago an agonising European last-four loss at home to Northampton Saints.

So while their teammates were still in the fray as they patiently waited for their moment with the game in the balance at 26-24 to the Wallabies, Sheehan recalled very different emotions watching on helplessly from the sidelines.

“I was sitting there beside Tadhg and he looked at me and I looked at him,” the hooker said. “He was like: ‘How many times have we been sitting on this bench in this situation and we've never won a game?’ And it was tough. It's almost harder watching it sometimes.

“When you're on the pitch you're so focused and you don't let your mind wander but when you're sitting on the bench it’s out of your control. Obviously, the bench were doing a great job, which was nice to see but it was something that felt like a fan in some ways. You're so engulfed in what you're seeing.

“But it's probably almost more enjoyable watching it happen and being able to celebrate.” 

There were a lot of fellow travellers still on the pitch to see the Lions home, not least Hugo Keenan, the hero of the hour as the Wallabies finally cracked for the full-back to finish in style and deliver not just a Test-match win but a first series victory in a dozen years. 

And with a win in the back, and the celebrations begun, Sheehan finally laid some ghosts to rest.

“I always look at the games and they could have gone either way in all of those games that I've played over the years, but it does bind a team and it sort of gets that monkey off the back.

“I think for this group, it's huge going into next week, and it would have been a big lift to the Aussies now if they got that Test over the line, and it would have been all on the line this week.

“Hopefully, we do get that sort of winning feeling and we get addicted to it and we can keep finding it. So yeah, it's quite an infectious feeling. I think you can feel it amongst the group, the lift it gives people, and hopefully we can do it for one more week.” 

Two days of celebrations in Melbourne and then Sydney on Saturday night and into Sunday capped a remarkable weekend for Sheehan, with his father Barry having presented the hooker with his Lions Test jersey last Thursday evening.

The dressing-room sing-song had threatened to drown out both Andy Farrell and Maro Itoje’s post-match media conference and then Australia head coach Joe Schmidt’s turn in front of the cameras. 

And the tourists would later carry their chairs out of the sheds and onto the hallowed MCG turf for a more private get-together to savour the moment.

“We probably stuck around the MCG for far too long, but it was definitely memories that will last a lifetime.” 

Sheehan recalled it was: “Just us and it's a moment to reflect on the journey. It's been long enough, since we've been out here, when you look back at Perth and that first meet up. So, yeah, it was nice to celebrate it.” 

Those celebrations reached their natural conclusion on Monday as the page was turned to the next objective, winning this Saturday’s third Test at Sydney’s Accor Stadium out in Homebush to complete an unbeaten record on Australian soil in 2025 with nine wins from nine and record a 3-0 Test series victory over the Wallabies.

Training resumed on Tuesday at North Sydney’s Shore School, after which Sheehan met the media.

“Straight into it today. We've already trained, which has been good to sort of get across the plan now for next week and we had some good meetings as well, being open and honest about what we're trying to achieve here as a group, and what we said at the start, which was to win 3-0.

“So, I think it would be disappointing if we didn't show up on Saturday... we've always been pretty clear on our goals. At the start of the campaign was to go unbeaten overseas and win the series 3-0. So, we just need to stick to what we said.

“There's a lot of people who've put a lot of effort into travelling out for this game and obviously a lot of our families will be here, so I think there's plenty of motivation on the line and I can only imagine what the Australians are feeling now as well.

“So, we need to make sure that we show up and are aiming to win a third Test.” 

Sheehan does not want to stop there. The Ireland star has caught the Lions big and already has his sights on a place in the 2029 squad that will head to New Zealand.

“Australia has been unbelievable to us. And you're sitting around here looking at this (view across to the Sydney Harbour Bridge), and all these cities have been unbelievable. And the support along the road has been crazy.

“And yeah, I've just been listening to the lads that have done it before, like Tadhg (Furlong), Jack (Conan), and they just say, this is going to be something else. And it's going to be whatever you think it is. It's going to be on steroids.

“And I think it has definitely lived up to that. And it's been absolutely mental. And I've enjoyed absolutely every second of it.

“It's flown by, like it's flown by. And then you think back to Perth and you're like, jeez, that was weeks ago. But yeah, it'd be hard not to make a squad in the years to come, like when you know how special these sort of moments can be. 

"So I think, put the head down now for another four years, please. I'm going to try and get back on the plane.”