Dan Sheehan dismisses notion Ireland are a team in decline as ‘nonsense’
Ireland captain Dan Sheehan branded talk of a decline in Irish rugby “nonsense” as he insisted the squad has the quality to succeed.
Head coach Andy Farrell admitted on Wednesday his side have work to do if they are to be contenders at next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia.
Ireland resume their Nations Championship campaign against Argentina on Friday evening in Dublin before hosting Fiji and world champions South Africa ahead of finals weekend.
Hooker Sheehan is deputising for injured skipper Caelan Doris this month and is preparing to lead Ireland out at the Aviva Stadium for the first time, having captained his country on three previous occasions.
“I’ve full confidence in this group,” said the 28-year-old.
“I think reminding myself and the group of the quality we have…sometimes you hear outside noise about ‘is this a transitioning time for Irish rugby?’ or ‘is this a decline in Irish rugby?’ and I think it’s all nonsense really.
“Making sure we keep our confidence in what we have, in the personnel we have, the coaches we have, in the group, it’s all set up perfectly for us.
“I think it’s just doubling down on our work ethic and making sure we fully back ourselves.”
Ireland began the Nations Championship with wins over Australia and Japan before ending their summer series with a 40-21 defeat to New Zealand at Eden Park.
Farrell’s side sit third in the world rankings, behind the Springboks and the All Blacks but ahead of back-to-back Six Nations champions France.
However, Ireland have lost their last seven matches against those three nations and have struggled to reach the heights of the previous World Cup cycle, which ended with a quarter-final defeat to New Zealand.
Asked where Ireland need to improve, Sheehan said: “Probably across a lot of areas, to be honest. We’ve been disappointed with a fair few performances that we’ve had, especially the big opportunities we had over the summer.
“The Australia game, I know we scraped a win but it probably wasn’t a performance we wanted. And the same with Eden Park, I think we were beaten by about 20.
“We’ve a few things to tidy up but I don’t think we’re a million miles off.
“I think we can all feel we have the talent in the group and we’re going in the right direction if we can put all of our minds together.”
Argentina have never beaten Ireland in Dublin.
However, the Pumas, who have lost each of their previous 11 visits, defeated Farrell’s British and Irish Lions 28-24 at the Aviva Stadium last summer.
“All eyes will be on this game and they’re a top-quality side that put the Lions away here so we know the threat they have, the passion they have for the game as well,” said Sheehan, who was not involved with the Lions that day.
“I’m sure they’ll be coming out all guns blazing and we need to match that and take it to a different level.”