Dan Sheehan: We're underdogs now but no end to Irish talent

Dan Sheehan, already a world-class hooker, is developing into the most impressive public voice in the Irish dressing room.

New Optimum Nutrition ambassador Dan Sheehan at the launch of their 'Optimum Advantage' campaign. Pic: Leo Francis/Inpho

Doom and gloom? Maybe not quite, but there was a layer of trepidation sitting like a mist on the four green fields as Andy Farrell revealed his hand on Wednesday for a Six Nations campaign that will see Ireland tackle Paris and London in the first three weeks.

Defeats in the last 15 months to New Zealand (twice), South Africa, France and England have confirmed the team’s slippage from the heights of 2022 when they were the equal of the game’s heavyweights. The next two months are huge for this team.

“Yeah, I'd say you're bang on,” said Dan Sheehan who was launching the "Optimum Advantage" campaign as Optimum Nutrition ambassador. “We do need to improve, for sure, and we have the right people in the room to do it. The talent is endless that we have in the squad.” 

Sheehan, already a world-class hooker, is developing into the most impressive public voice in the Irish dressing room. Direct and firm, there is a clarity and an honesty to his words that cut through any ‘messaging’. He lays things straight.

The scrum, he said, hasn’t been accurate enough, even if he is eager to add that it has been a weapon at times too. Discipline is another focus. That has to improve as Test rugby is hard enough without giving penalties and territory up so easily.

“We need to prep well and get the energy going because we're no longer the favorites for anything now. We're almost that sort of underdog mentality, we need to show up and make sure we're counted.” 

The omens from November, when Ireland just didn’t turn up against New Zealand and suffered a traumatising defeat to South Africa, are not good. The hope is that Farrell’s squad is better conditioned now than then.

Sheehan was one of 18 Irish players to play on the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia last summer. Some had just one club game to their names this season by the time they flew out for that flop of a Test opener in Chicago.

“Everyone's got a good bit of rugby under their belt now,” said Sheehan. “The excuses are gone.” 

Sheehan first played at the Stade de France four years ago when Ireland rebounded from an early 15-point deficit but ultimately fell half-a-dozen short of their hosts. His last game in Saint-Denis was the World Cup quarter-final loss to the All Blacks in 2023.

Two years ago, Ireland and France met in Marseille in the opening round of the Championship with Farrell’s side shaking off their World Cup blues much quicker than the hosts and running out 38-17 winners at the Stade Velodrome.

“That was just a day where it felt like it was all clicking and everything we had planned was coming off. We just executed the basics really well, which put France under a lot of pressure, and we scored a few more tries.

“That was the first game of the series as well, which is always a tough game to start. You don't know where you're at, and there's good nervous energy and group. It all came together that day.”

Ireland’s rivalry with France has waxed and waned in recent times. The French, who have proven the toughest of opponents even with the rise of the national team here going back to the early 2000s, have won four of the last six meetings stretching back to 2020. The Irish claimed six from seven in the period before that.

The most recent meet was a jolting 42-27 victory for France in Dublin last March. Fabien Galthié’s side scored five tries. Described on the Six Nations website at the time as a masterclass, it ended a ten-game unbeaten home win and any Grand Slam ambitions.

“We’ve had some proper battles with them over the last few years. Last year was disappointing that we got up… It was just after half-time, wasn't it, that we got over the line, got ahead, and then things just got away from us.

“They have the ability to do that,” said the Ireland hooker. “They're very good at keeping momentum once they get it. They have the talent across the board to make sure that they keep putting you under pressure.” 

you It was a game that marked France’s highest ever points tally on Irish soil and the task facing Ireland in two weeks’ time is obvious when we consider that Damian Penaud, who became his country’s joint top try scorer in Dublin, has now been dropped from the latest squad.

Along with Gael Fickou and Gregory Alldritt, both of them captains just last November.

Last year’s defeat “took the wind out of our sails a little bit”, according to Sheehan who knows that something similar can’t be countenanced again. Underdogs or not, he goes into this Championship with the same goal as always.

“I'm sure a Grand Slam is going to be the aim, and so it should be. We have the ability to beat any of those teams on our day. It's just about how we perform and how we show up to those games. It's going to be no easy task.”