Canny Boks 'have a lot more than just brutes running at you',  warns Dan Sheehan

The Ireland hooker knows the hosts will have to be up to the challenge — physical and otherwise — on Saturday. 

Dan Sheehan at Ireland Rugby Squad Training. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

It was only as an unwilling witness from the sidelines at Durban’s King’s Park that Dan Sheehan realised the bone-shuddering enormity of the physical challenge posed by the Springboks.

The Ireland hooker had sustained a serious knee injury in the white heat of just such a battle seven days earlier at Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld and had an eye-level viewpoint as the two rivals went toe to toe a second time, Andy Farrell’s avenging the previous week’s 27-20 loss with a famous 25-24 win.