Still scope to improve and that will worry rivals
WATCHING Dan Sheehan and Joe McCarthy punch holes in the French pack on Friday night, it was hard to fathom that both players nearly fell through the cracks of the system.
Neither were classed as schoolboy stars or young prodigies in their fledgling years. Indeed, McCarthy once considered packing it all in while Sheehan only made it into the Leinster academy on the back of some stellar work with Lansdowne in the AIL.
Sheehan is now one of the premier hookers on the global stage. A worthy candidate in World XV debates. McCarthy, meanwhile, only added to his growing reputation with a barnstorming, playerof-the-match display in Marseilles. At 25 and 22 respectively, they could be the beating hearts of the Irish pack for the next 10 years. A frightening prospect for rival packs.
Sheehan had a frontrow seat for McCarthy’s tour de force at Stade Velodrome.
‘He’s amazing,’ the Leinster hooker noted.
‘Just energy — young, physical, excited about every physical point of the game. He’s able to rip teams apart on his own, it seems. Just need to hold him back, is the main problem.
‘No, it’s great to see someone like him, who probably didn’t have the career laid out in front of him like a lot of other lads did.
‘He was late into schools, he was probably always an underdog, so to be able to bounce onto the scene like he has is incredible and he’s a huge asset for us and for Leinster.’
Both Leinster forwards played a huge role in this record-breaking statement win on French soil. This was just Ireland’s fifth win in France in 52 years. A victory is rare in this part of the world. Cruising to an emphatic, bonuspoint triumph is dreamland stuff.
‘It’s right up there, for me, anyway. It’s special to be able to win against France in France, in one of those hostile environments where the crowd get in behind a good French team and it can be hard,’ Sheehan agreed. ‘I thought we did well to control the majority of the game.
‘We probably gave them access to the points where they were dominant in the game, so I thought we were pretty good. There’s a obviously a few things we can fix but I thought we were in good control for most of the game.’
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this performance was the ruthlessness Ireland displayed in the most hostile of atmospheres.
The fact that the volume of the Velodrome was so muted after such an adrenaline-fuelled pre-match build-up was testament to what the visitors did in the pitch.
‘Yeah, we’d talked about it,’ Sheehan explained. ‘It happened a good bit at the World Cup as well, though we probably had a few more Irish during the World Cup.
‘But the French absolutely love the nine o’clock kick-offs and the place was bouncing. It was similar to the La Rochelle final we had two years ago — the place was bouncing just before kick-off, which we don’t really get at home. But we talked about it all week, how we could feed off it.
‘It’s going to be there, so there’s no point in trying to ignore it or phase it out. Enjoy the occasion. I was loving the warm-up. There was a good vibe off it and I thought we fed off it well.’
Now, the chance to secure backto-back Grand Slams is a very real possibility. No team has ever managed such a feat in the Six Nations. You have to go all the way back to 1998 when France landed successive clean sweeps in the old Five Nations.
It would be some statement by a squad who feel they underachieved at the World Cup. Sheehan and Co are looking to set the record straight in the coming months.
‘There haven’t been too many changes to the squad. That energy that we had in previous camps — whether it was World Cup or Six Nations last year — is the exact same.
‘We were pretty quick to get back together and we’ve talked about it all week: this isn’t a new journey, it’s just a continuation of what we’ve done.
‘We’ve been excellent for 90 per cent of what we’ve done previously, so it’s just about kicking on.
‘We’ve a lot of experience in that team, we’ve been here before, so game by game.’
The stunned hosts simply had no answer to Ireland’s high-tempo, allcourt attack. Once Sheehan and the rest of this team got some frontfoot ball, they caused havoc in a passive French defensive effort.
For the Ireland hooker, who won his 22nd cap in Marseilles, there is still scope to improve. And that’s a huge worry for the rest of Ireland’s Six Nations rivals.
‘Rugby is a weird sport in that you can find something wrong with every single thing, so there will probably be a few things,’ he added.
‘We probably didn’t get set quickly enough. We probably could have scored a try one or two phases earlier at times, or we made hard work of playing out of our own half, or discipline.
‘Discipline was the main thing, around our 10 metre-line, half-way, we gave away too many penalties, which allowed them to kick into our corner and we got stuck there for a little while, in both halves, but especially at the end of the first half, and against the French, they take these quick penalties and they’re unpredictable in attack.
‘There will be a good review when we get back in on Monday but I thought it was a pretty good performance away to France.’
We’ve a lot of experience in that team, we’ve been here before, so game by game