IRELAND HOOKER DAN Sheehan is set to make his comeback from injury in next weekend’s World Cup clash with South Africa.
The 24-year-old returned to full training this week after recovering from a foot issue but tomorrow’s game against Tonga has come just too soon.
However, Ireland boss Andy Farrell indicated that Sheehan will be good to go next week.
“Yes, he’s ticked all the boxes this week,” said Farrell. “He had to get through set-piece stuff this week for the first time, scrummaging mainly, and he did half a session on Tuesday to see how the reaction was going to be, and a full session on Wednesday, and he’d no qualms to kick on for the rest of the week as well.
“He’ll be available for selection for next week.”
Sheehan’s availability will be welcome for the huge Pool B clash with the Springboks, who lost hooker Malcolm Marx to a long-term knee injury this week and have yet to name a replacement for him in their squad.
While Sheehan isn’t involved tomorrow in Nantes, Farrell is sending out an Ireland team that is very close to full-strength for the second week in a row.
The Ireland boss said he wanted his players to continue to build momentum in this World Cup, but he’s happy with where they are at this stage.
“I think so, yeah,” said Farrell. “I mean, proof is in the pudding. I definitely think so. I think to start a competition against a side like Romania last week, it was a challenge within itself because we wanted to, obviously, get out of that game and we did that.
“To score 80 points in any game, against any type of opposition, is very hard to do, to stay on point throughout, but we managed to do that. We need to do that in a different kind of way this week.”
Ireland captain Johnny Sexton is hoping his team can pick up where they left off in Bordeaux last time out, but also iron out some of the issues in the performance.
“We want to improve in all areas,” said Sexton. “You talk about good attack, there is plenty of bad attacking in there. You talk about good defence, there is a mix through all aspects of our game.
“We always take every game apart positives and negatives, and just with the mindset to try and get better for the next week but also just learn. We gave away some silly penalties, a couple of bad kick-offs, a couple of bad kicks out on the full, stuff like that.
“So lots of inaccuracies we hope to improve on this week, but then this week will bring up more challenges we’ll have to get right for the week after.”
