Speaking of opportunities, Ireland have a big one this weekend. An 11th straight victory over Scotland would push the holders closer to a third straight title, wound a contender and bolster the momentum gained from beating England.
On Ireland’s last visit to Murrayfield, in 2023, Ireland lost Sheehan and replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher to injury in a chaotic game that forced Cian Healy to scrummage as a hooker and Van der Flier to throw into the lineouts.
Last year, despite a stout defensive effort from Scotland in Dublin, Ireland retained their title on the final day of the tournament with a 17-13 win.
But Sheehan, who scored in Ireland’s 2023 World Cup and 2024 Six Nations wins over Gregor Townsend’s side, says the run of defeats will serve only to ramp up the Scots’ motivation.
“I think we approach it like every other game but we have to be almost hyper aware of their motivation and if they’re going to bring in an extra and their motivation of what they’ll bring to the table,” he said.
“We probably glance over it once or twice during the week about what we think they might bring or their mindset going into a game, but then it’s straight back into what can we add to the game and how are we going to approach the game.
“I think you can get yourself down a rabbit hole a little bit if you think about too much what the opposition are going to do, but I think if we go out and perform like we know we can and improve on last week we should be good for a good day out.”
