When Dan Sheehan tapped a penalty and went for the tryline five metres out in the first half of the second Test, Superman diving over James Slipper to score, we credited him for his genius.
It was Sheehan’s 17th try in 19 matches this season, and his second score in the British & Irish Lions Test series against Australia, having taken a crucial one just after half-time in the first Test at Brisbane too.
Australians cried foul, as they did for the Jac Morgan clear-out on Carlo Tizzano which led to Hugo Keenan’s winning try, but the referee was happy that Sheehan had not broken the law. Players are allowed to dive in the act of scoring, where they are usually not permitted to jump into contact, as long as it is not dangerous.
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“Fantastic knowledge of the laws,” we thought up in the MCG stands. Yet the real answer as to why Sheehan did it was a little simpler. It was more about self-preservation.
“That was not the play,” he says, confirming it was done on instinct, not design. “The play was trying to get as close to the line as possible for the second phase. I just thought in my head I got melted in the first one I tried, and didn’t get much out of it, so there has to be a bit of an opportunity over the top.
“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. I can see all the controversy about it, but I did know that you can dive in the air if you score.”
Sheehan loves working out how to manipulate defences to score, although not the pain that sometimes goes with the short, stabbing drives from a couple of metres out. “It’s a tough job in professional rugby,” he says. “I don’t know why they pick the hooker to do it!”
In Sheehan’s case, it is because he is probably the best hooker, front-row, and maybe even forward in the world right now. Aged 26 he is in the form of his life and would be one of the first names in a World XV.
At 6ft 3in and nearly 18st he is a big hooker, and an inspirational one. The word is that Gabriel Farrell, the 14-year-old son of Andy and brother of Owen, wants to move from No8 to hooker for his school, Blackrock College in Dublin, because he is keen to emulate Sheehan.
Andy and Gabriel after the Lions won the series at the MCG
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Andy Farrell, the Lions head coach, tells Sheehan and the rest of the squad to “not feel guilty for having a smile on your face”, and the Irishman has been beaming throughout this tour, his first with the Lions. He sits at Shore School in Sydney, where the Lions are training this week, up on a rooftop terrace with a jaw-dropping view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House within Circular Quay. He keeps looking at it in awe as we chat.
“What a country to tour,” Sheehan says. “Australia has been unbelievable to us. You’re sitting around here looking at this, and all these cities have been unbelievable. The support along the road has been crazy.
“I’ve just been listening to the lads that have done it before, like Tadhg [Furlong], Jack [Conan], and they just say this is going to be something else. It’s going to be on steroids. It has definitely lived up to that. It’s been absolutely mental. I’ve enjoyed absolutely every second of it.
“It would be hard not to make a squad in the years to come, when you know how special these moments can be. So I’ll put my head down now for another four years, please. I’m going to try to get back on the plane.”
Sheehan admits that he would find it difficult to miss out on a place in future Lions squads after the “unbelievable” experience of his first tour in Australia
DAVID GIBSON/FOTOSPORT/SHUTTERSTOCK
Sheehan felt less zen when he was sitting on a white plastic chair during the dramatic ending of last Saturday’s second Test. He and Furlong were next to each other on the sidelines and could do nothing to influence the outcome.
As Leinster men, they had seen this movie before, and did not fancy a re-run of all the near-misses gone by: the 28-24 World Cup quarter-final defeat by New Zealand two years ago; those Champions Cup losses to La Rochelle in the 2022 and 2023 finals, by three points and one point respectively; the 37-34 European semi-final defeat by Northampton Saints this season.
“Tadhg looked at me and I looked at him,” Sheehan says. “He was like: ‘How many times have we been sitting on this bench in this situation and we’ve never won a game?’ ”
Yet this one was different, as Keenan’s try sealed the series win in the final minute. “I felt like a fan,” Sheehan adds. “You’re so engulfed in what you’re seeing. It’s probably almost more enjoyable watching it happen and being able to celebrate.”
The celebrations after the Lions’ victory in the second Test were Sheehan’s favourite moments of the tour
STEVE CHRISTO/SPORTSFILE
That led to Sheehan’s favourite moments of the tour, as the players went out to sing songs and drink beers on the MCG pitch — before the ground staff kicked them off — late on Saturday night, then moving the celebrations to Sydney on Sunday. “I don’t think the MCG were very happy with us,” Sheehan says, “but we were having scrums on the cricket crease [during the Test], so we might as well sit down on a chair [afterwards]!”
He has loved bonding with England’s Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jamie George, Ollie Chessum and Ben Earl, whom he has played against and looked up to from afar. Sheehan has found it odd going from “growing up hating” them to realising “they are good fellas”. Will he be able to rekindle that burning fire when the Six Nations rolls around? “When you pull back on an Irish jersey, it won’t be too hard,” he says with a smile.
After two days of celebrating a series victory, the partying stopped and focus returned to rugby. For Sheehan and his team-mates, this tour has always only been about two numbers: 3-0.
The Lions did not enjoy their belated review of the game on Tuesday. “It’s not pretty watching,” he says. “Australia dictated the pace of the game early on in that first half — were just a bit all over the place. It took us a few punches in the nose to wake up and really get to grips with it.”
From the outset, the Lions have owned their favourites tag, but have yet to truly dominate the Wallabies. They are desperate for it all to come together in Sydney on Saturday night.
“We are searching for an 80-minute performance,” Sheehan says. “We have the ability to do it. The people in the room, it is crazy the talent we have, so we just need to get them all working. We’ve always been pretty clear on our goals. At the start of the campaign it was to go unbeaten overseas and win the series 3-0. So, we just need to stick to what we said.
“There’s a lot of people who’ve put a lot of effort into travelling out for this game and a lot of our families will be here, so there’s plenty of motivation. I can only imagine what the Australians are feeling now as well. It would be disappointing if we didn’t show up on Saturday.”
Sheehan says he and his team-mates are determined to deliver a series whitewash after admitting they were outplayed for large parts of the second Test
DAN SHERIDAN/INPHO
Sheehan has delayed his departure from Australia, just in case the party extends deeper than expected if they achieve their clean-sweep goal. Like most, he just does not want this experience to end.
“We get that winning feeling and we get addicted to it, and we can keep finding it,” he says. “It’s quite an infectious feeling. You can feel it among the group, the lift it gives people. Hopefully we can do it for one more week.”