Head coach Andy Farrell looking forward to countdown clash with Samoa as he makes final selections
It is not clear whether the hooker, who came off late in the first-half of the win over England at the weekend, travelled with the rest of the squad as he looks to recover after losing power in his foot.
It is a similar problem to the one that No 8 Jack Conan is currently working his way back from and Andy Farrell believes he’ll be available for the tournament but won’t face the Islanders in Bayonne.
If he’s on the same timeline, then Sheehan would miss the opening two matches against Romania and Tonga but could feature against South Africa in the pivotal pool match on September 23, but the decision around selecting him also hinges on the fitness of Rónan Kelleher who is the only available member of the 38-man squad yet to play a minute of pre-season due to a hamstring issue.
Ireland beat England 29-10 in comfortable fashion at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday and Farrell says he won’t make wholesale changes for the final game.
The coach will balance the week between preparing his team to play Samoa and making the final call on the 33-man squad that will be announced in a week’s time.
“We have stuff going on in the back of our mind,” he said of the squad.
“I don’t know what’s going to go on in Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday or Friday with the captain’s run over there in Bayonne.
“All sorts could happen so keeping people connected is important but we’ve obviously got a good idea of how that’s going to unfold.
“I’m really looking forward to it.
“Even recovery today. It’s our first time that we’ve had back-to-back games and, because of the satellite bases that we’ve got in France, we travel on a Thursday and we travel back from wherever we’re playing on the Sunday so we’ll be doing that tomorrow.
“Night rugby is obviously something that we’re getting used to. It’s a night kick-off.
“There’s all sorts of stuff, as far as accreditations that have to be given out. There’s restrictions on that, so it’s a bit of a trial run for us next week in a lot of areas so that will be good for us.”
Farrell reflected on a “clunky” overall display, but was pleased with how his back three of Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen and James Lowe and out-half Ross Byrne performed.
“I thought our back three were excellent,” he said.
“Even when it wasn’t just the transition stuff that they were super with. The kicking game was good. their understanding, the feel, every time.
“Ross Byrne took a few crash balls in et cetera, there was always somebody there stepping up, taking responsibility for the team it is great to see.
“He (Byrne) did well.
“He’s very clear. He’s very good at running the week and very clear of what he wants from the players around him so therefore there’s good clarity. There’s people who can fit in around that, that can play their game around that. So, his control is very good.”
One area that needs major improvement is the lineout where Ireland coughed up penalties, threw a few crooked and were beaten to the punch by England on occasion.
Farrell said that England’s aggressive approach in the air will stand to Ireland down the line.
“It was a good day for us for our learning,” he said.
“England have a fantastic lineout defence, there is no getting away from that, so all credit to them.
“A few options that (forwards coach) Paul (O’Connell) won’t be best pleased with execution-wise but the best thing about today really was how we kept our nerve when things weren’t going too well and found our way back into that.
“Some of the calling from James (Ryan) in particular and our execution in the second half was much better.”
Saturday’s win was another blow to England who face a pair of disciplinary hearings after No 8 Billy Vunipola had his yellow card upgraded to a red following a bunker review of his high tackle on Andrew Porter.
Their captain Owen Farrell is also back in the dock after World Rugby appealed an independent disciplinary committee’s decision to downgrade his yellow card against Wales.
And Ireland skipper Ryan said that Farrell and his coaching team are making sure the players are hyper-aware of the importance of getting their tackle technique right in the coming weeks.
“We’ve touched on these different incidents in the past,” he said.
“You just have to be so careful, it’s something that (defence coach) Simon (Easterby) would speak about, the ramifications of just being a little bit sloppy or not getting your technique quite right are massive so we’re definitely conscious of it so we’d do a lot of tackle technique as a team during the week just to mitigate against that risk.
“If you just get it not quite right, you might lose a few weeks or a few games.”
