Ireland vs South Africa: Springboks match ‘a great sign’ for Ireland – Sheehan

Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan says Saturday’s meeting with world champions South Africa at the Aviva Stadium will provide a “great sign” to show the level of his team.

The match against the Springboks will complete Ireland’s international matches in November.

Andy Farrell’s side lost to New Zealand in Chicago, then defeated Japan and Australia in Dublin in their first three matches.

“We’ve had some decent battles with them over the last couple of years,” Sheehan said.

“It’s always an exciting game to be a part of and I think everyone is really looking forward to the world champions coming to town and seeing where we are.

“We’ve been building well every week so far after maybe a slow start.”

Ireland’s line-up has come under some criticism in recent weeks, but the Leinster striker was pleased with how that set-piece worked in the 46-19 win over the Wallabies last weekend.

He added: “To be honest, I thought the media that covered the matter over the past two weeks was disproportionate and there were a lot of panic stations outside the camp, but that was not the case inside the camp.”

“We all knew it was simple fixes and basically human errors. That’s life and you just have to get on with it.

“I don’t think anyone panicked and we had the right people in the room to solve the problem and it all came together over the weekend.

“We take confidence from the good performance from our side and certainly there are things we need to work on in our game, especially how we managed to achieve that in the second half 20, and things about our discipline and defense when the teams in our 22 group need to be better.”

Sheehan stressed that Ireland would go out with an “attack mentality” against South Africa.

“It’s like most Test matches. Fitness is always talked about when you wear an Irish jersey, but of course when you play the world champions you have to be at the forefront of your mind.

“But also you can’t let it get to your mind – we have to focus on ourselves and make sure we put our game plan on the table and not wait to see what they bring.

“A big part of the game coming up this weekend is probably going to be defense in and around the bullpen.

“Obviously they’ve got some big ball carriers and they’re playing fast over you, trying to narrow you down so they can exploit it in the wider channels. That’s been the focus and we’ve covered the bases there and implemented that in training.”