Sheehan calls on Lions to find a new level against the Wallabies

BBC News

3 days ago

British and Irish Lions hooker, Dan Sheehan, says his team are going to have to play a "lot better" than they have been performing if they are to win the first Test against the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday."I think we have to find another level," said the Leinsterman. "We've had some close games in the last few weeks, so we definitely need to step up. We've talked about it."What we've done so far has been great and I think we've done a good job doing it, but there has to be a visible difference this week. We should be able to feel the energy off people. Everything is just going to be up a level."Sheehan is sure to start at hooker when Andy Farrell names his team on Thursday. He has compared this Lions tour, with the frenetic pace of travel and games, as like a World Cup "on steroids."The hooker also spoke about the significance of the scrum on Saturday, an area of strength for the Lions so far on tour. "We'll need to make sure we have no preconceived ideas that we might have a dominant scrum," he said. "We have to earn their respect from the start. We can't carry in that belief that we might run over a team. It won't happen like that. We're back to ground zero at scrum time. But it's a big part of our game that hopefully we can get a bit of joy out of."Various Lions have spoken of their desire to win the series 3-0 and to be remembered as the greatest Lions side ever, a noble, if deluded, thought. The 1971 Lions were the first and still the only squad to win in New Zealand, the 1974 Lions in South Africa went unbeaten and the 1997 Lions, also in South Africa, stamped their names in history by winning a series that few thought them capable of.Nothing these Lions can do against the world's eighth-ranked nation will live with those feats, but Sheehan thinks the chat from some of his team-mates is not out of place."There's going to be a bit of fire and they (the Wallabies) will feed into that," he added. "We need to make sure we come out firing and stamp our gameplan on them early."I'm sure there's going to be some big collisions, some big heated moments in the game. I don't think that's anything too crazy (the comments about 3-0). It's obviously everyone's goal to win a Test series and to try to be a step beyond the last squad."The way rugby has evolved, every team should be better than the last, and it's a massive goal of ours to make sure we reach our potential. I think if we do reach our potential we have the possibility to be one of the best teams. I think they're fair comments."