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Dan Sheehan leads long list of Irish injuries heading into second Test
By Josh Raisey
Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan is out of the second Test against South Africa next week in Durban after suffering a suspected ACL tear, according to reports in Ireland.
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The 27-cap international suffered the injury on 28 minutes of the 27-20 loss to the world champions while tackling lock Eben Etzebeth, and could now be facing six to nine months on the sidelines.
Despite clambering back to his feet in order to rejoin the defensive line, the 25-year-old was in clear discomfort. The medical team heavily strapped his knee, allowing him to continue playing until half-time before being replaced by Ronan Kelleher.
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Sheehan played a vital role in Ireland’s first try of the match, pulling off a behind-the-back pass to James Lowe for Jamie Osborne’s try five minutes before the break. The fact that the hooker was effectively on one leg makes an already spectacular try even more remarkable.
Unfortunately for Andy Farrell, Sheehan is just one of several casualties from the Test, with scrumhalf Craig Casey also set to miss next week’s encounter.
Casey was stretchered off in the second half, and Farrell confirmed after the match that he had suffered a concussion after his former Munster teammate RG Snyman slammed him to the ground at a ruck, causing his head to smash into the hard Loftus Versfeld turf.
Centre Robbie Henshaw also suffered a head injury in the first half of the match, and joined Sheehan in being replaced at half-time, with Garry Ringrose taking his place.
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Fullback Jamie Osborne left the field after 50 minutes of his debut with a groin injury and was soon followed by loosehead prop Andrew Porter, who had blood gushing from his hand, though he did return.
Farrell said post-match that there were “a few that we need to assess over the next 24 hours”, meaning Ireland’s starting XV could have a different complexion when they run out at Kings Park next Saturday.
Thats a great pity, would really have liked to see Sheehan and Marx head to head.
what is it w hookers and liagment tears? Marx, Bongi, Sheehan…who’s next?
Won’t matter anyway. Boks need incompetent refs to win. Barnes was up first. Pearce & Whitehouse joined the party over the weekend.
What are the chances Dickaon gets a fat envelope of unmarked cash this upcoming weekend too? The only way the Boks can win after all
It's hard to like the Irish when their loudest supporters are such whiny sore losers
Agree- before they choose the refs we must check them out and agree they are able to help us. Otherwise we must reserve right to choose someone else. And if they help then we take them to a game reserve of their choice. And they get to choose the best red wine as well. Tired of this bleating so let’s agree we have all refs in our pocket then hopefully the crying stops. Really!
There you go, you’re never too old to learn something stupid.
DS is an incredibly talented hooker & one of the world's best, a huge blow for Ireland. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery
South Africa had the best of play but Farrell is absolutely correct to use the correct channels and bring issuesto attention ahead of the next test. That’s his role as head coach and he must do it to make sure his team have a more even rub of the green in Durban.
If World Rugby are trying to protect players than why was Snyman’s foul play on Casey not penalized?
As well as hitting him long after the ball is gone, Snyman uses all his force to smash Casey into the ground knocking him unconcious….then Snyman slides his body up Caseys and uses his head to push Casey’s head into the ground again. Real scvmbag stuff. They won’t thank him in Munster or Leinster for that. We don’t like cowards.
Turlough, great to see you comment and hope you managed to come over. I am amazed how the losing side always moans. Same when we play up north and feel the refs are always against us. The game was hard as it should be, but I really don’t think anything was that bad to call people scumbags. The Irish were tough and relentless, as they should be, and so were we. But I didn’t see anything from any player to go crazy about.
Nobody wants to see what happened to Casey, everyone with some modicum of decency wishes him a speedy recovery.
You’re absolutely correct in saying, that Farrell is within his right to use all appropriate channels if he feels something was irregular, or missed.
However, I don’t agree with you on the description of the situation. The hit was borderline late, but ultimately just a rugby incident. Every team exerts pressure on the opposing half-backs. Ireland do that as well, make no mistake. Pollard got utterly run over at least twice after passing/kicking the ball in the very same game. The only difference is, that him getting pulverized didn’t result in a freak injury.
Surely, Snyman didn’t intend to injure Casey. He just wanted to let him know a hit is coming every time he gets the ball, so that he would make mistakes out of haste. This is how you win rugby games. Again, every team is doing that, Ireland included.
Multiple sets of eyes reviewed the incident, Pearce even instructed the TMO to look into whether the hit was late. It was ruled ok. I understand, that you’re upset about it, but I believe you’re judging the whole situation on its outcome (a freak accident), and not on the actions of the player involved. Casey clearly didn’t expect to get hit. If he was ready and braced, he’d never have this sort of whiplash, and he wouldn’t have gotten injured.
Yes, we don’t want injuries like that to happen (especially a head trauma), but rugby is a full contact sport and injuries are going to happen. It’s incumbent on World Rugby to lower the risks as much as they can, but they can’t be fully eradicated.
Ask Willie Le Roux, who got injured in a very similar manner against Leinster, and missed the URC finals.
Late tackles are a problem. The Leinster hit on Le Roux at Loftus arguably sank the Bulls championship chances. A subsequent late hit on Goosen in the same game could easily have taken him out too.
A late tackle on a player executing a hoisted kick is especially bad, because the tackler has much more ability to anticipate that the impact will be late, and because you are likely hitting the kicker when they are in a very vulnerable position, even possibly off the ground. Is it possible, given the pattern, that it was part of the Leinster game plan to hit those guys hard, and late if necessary? It’s not a crazy interpretation.
Tackling someone that does not have the ball is always illegal. But refs almost always rule late tackles on the basis of intent and/or recklessness, rather than the letter of the law. It is a really hard judgement call.
As far as the Snyman incident is concerned, the injury was awful, and you’d have to wish Casey the best. But TBH I was less concerned about the lateness or height of the tackle (which thought were within bounds), and more concerned about whether Snyman was onside at the time.
I dont agree with you. RG is a hard competitor, but no thug. Was a good hard tackle. Nice and low considering the height difference of him and Casey. The result of the tackle is unfortunate though. I saw a video on YT arguing he came from an offisde position to make the tackle. If anything that is the worst he could be accused of in that situation.
Off the sauce Turlough it’s not midday yet. Snyman is massive and Casey is decidedly not, the timing was poor but we see plenty of those incidents on a daily basis, similar thing happened to JGP against the bulls. You can question his conduct after but the hit was fine and you can’t give out about momentum sliding him up when Casey isn’t exactly going to provide much resistance
It’s rugby, nothing wrong with the tackle!! An unfortunate rugby injury…