Dan Sheehan: ‘The Lions tour has been chaos – and I've enjoyed absolutely every second of it'

Independent

6 days ago

Perched on the bench next to Tadhg Furlong, Dan Sheehan could only watch, gut wrenched by the familiar feeling of a fate out of your hands. Plenty of times the pair had sat together exhausted yet enraptured, their front row efforts done but a game to which they had contributed plenty in the balance. Plenty of times, too, they had come out on the wrong side; the 2023 and 2024 Champions Cup finals, or perhaps most agonisingly that quarter-final night in Paris where Ireland's World Cup dreams came crashing down. With the British and Irish Lions bashing on the door for a match-winning try at the end of the second Test, the memories came flooding back.
'I was sitting there beside Tadhg and he looked at me and I looked at him,' Sheehan explains. '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.'
The story, of course, was different this time. It is perhaps wrong for Sheehan, a Six Nations grand slam winner and recent URC champion, to suggest that Ireland and Leinster have always come up short in the big moments but near misses have been a theme of a career otherwise on an outstanding track. His first-half try at the MCG on Saturday was his 17th in Test rugby and 16th in 16 games for club, country and British Isles this season, discounting his involvement in the tour games. If it was the great Keith Wood who first challenged what a hooker could be and do, the current occupant of the Ireland No 2 shirt is his spiritual successor, as comfortable in spaces open as tight.
An athletically gifted front rower, he has long demonstrated his speed and skill up the touchline but Saturday's score showcased a different discipline. The legality of Sheehan's leap for the line over two would-be tacklers has been called into question – rugby's lawbook really has taken a beating this week – but the officials were happy he left his feet in the act of scoring rather than avoiding the grasping Wallabies.
Sheehan blames a Lions squad-mate for having to take the tap penalty at all. 'It's a tough job in professional rugby,' he says. 'I don't know why they pick the hooker to do it. I think Exeter started that; [ Luke Cowan-Dickie ] probably did that.
'I took the first one and I got absolutely melted trying to go low. Usually, it's one lad goes low and someone maybe is high and I just got both shoulders melted low and I didn't really get much out of it.
'Then the second one I just thought: 'If I have a dive here...' I didn't know if they had anyone in the back. It was just a throw and hope and I slipped through. Yeah, I can see all the controversy about it, but I did know that you can dive in the air if you score. I'm not sure actually if I missed the line would it be a penalty or not? The play was trying to get as close to the line as possible for the second phase. I'll take all the tries that can come my way.'
Sheehan has built quick bonds with Cowan-Dickie and Jamie George in the hooking group, while he has also enjoyed turning foes into friends. 'There's a few lads your own age that you've sort of come up through age-grades like Ollie Chessum, Ben Earl. You're kind of growing up hating these lads, and then all of a sudden, you're like, everyone's a pretty good fella.'
The 26-year-old will extend his stay in Sydney by a couple of days to make the most of the city and savour every moment of his first Lions experience. It seems unlikely to be his last. 'I think back to that sort of two-week block where we had I don't know how many games, where it was a Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, like it's just chaos going around, all these different cities and the whole organisation moving around. And, you know, you kind of get lost in it, but it just works somehow.
'It's been absolutely mental. And I've enjoyed absolutely every second of it. It's flown by. And then you think back to Perth and you're like, jeez, that was weeks ago. It'd be hard not to make a squad in the years to come when you know how special these sorts 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.'