Ireland have called up Connacht hooker Dave Heffernan and Ulster scrumhalf Nathan Doak to replace Dan Sheehan and Craig Casey ahead of Saturday’s second Test against South Africa at King’s Park in Durban.
Sheehan suffered a knee injury during Ireland’s 27-20 defeat to the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld, while Casey was taken off on a stretcher after suffering a severe concussion. The 33-year-old Heffernan from Ballina won the last of his seven caps as a replacement during Ireland’s summer tour to New Zealand in 2022, having won his first against the USA five years earlier.
The 22-year-old Doak, son of former Ulster scrumhalf Neil, who is currently with the Ireland 20s at the Junior World Cup in Cape Town, is uncapped at senior international level, but has played for Ulster on 71 occasions. A placekicking option who can play both halfback positions, he is a former age-grade international. Doak and Heffernan arrived in Durban on Monday.
An IRFU statement said: “Following medical assessments after Saturday’s opening Test, the Ireland management can confirm that neither Craig Casey (concussion) nor Dan Sheehan (left knee) will play any further part in the South African series. Connacht hooker Dave Heffernan and Ulster scrumhalf Nathan Doak have been called up, and the duo have linked with the squad in Durban. There will be a further medical update later in the week.”
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Ireland will only briefly look back to plan ahead for next Saturday’s second Test. They won’t do so with a sense of grievance because it no longer serves a purpose to do so.
The visitors got the shrill end of the whistle from the match officials in the 27-20 defeat to the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld, left to rue marginal calls that went against them; such are the imperfections of sport. There is a mechanism to seek clarity and after that it’s onwards, and from an Irish squad perspective, hopefully upwards.
Before the group had even left Pretoria Ireland head coach Andy Farrell spoke candidly about addressing the performance issues that had undermined the team’s prospects. Conor Murray, a second half replacement for the unfortunate Craig Casey and try scorer, sifted through the debris.
“They attacked really well in the first half especially, and we fixed it, or dealt with it, better in the second half in terms of our own ‘D’ (defence) line. They were going wide-wide quite a bit, which we kind of expected, with Tony Brown as their attack coach. (There were) a couple of moments where we’d like to have done a little bit better.
“I was obviously looking on in the first half. Once or twice we looked a little disjointed, usually we are in one line whatever the call is. You can say that’s the atmosphere, people mightn’t have heard; I don’t know. Usually we are a little bit tighter, we look after our line integrity more, so we are disappointed to concede off a few things like that. We are usually a bit better.
“They really brought it physically. The breakdown was difficult, but as soon as we got a bit of quick ball we looked dangerous. Andy said, ‘no feeling sorry for ourselves’, and I don’t think we should.”
It’s a commonplace attitude amongst the Irish players as number eight Caelan Doris, who took over the captaincy after Peter O’Mahony went off, offered a similar slant. He said: “It was tight margins as clichéd as that is. The message in the changing rooms after the game was not to dwell on it, not to sulk too much and feel sorry because there’s still a big game coming.
“We want to finish the season on a high with a good performance and a win, so lads are pretty battered but we’ll recover and get into it.”
Murray dismissed any lingering frustration over officiating, pointing to the difficultly of refereeing and that the Irish players would look to themselves rather than reaching for external excuses. He was summoned into the game following Craig Casey’s misfortune. “Craig played really well, I thought, he had a great game, (before he) took a really unfortunate knock. I don’t think there was any malice in it, he just hit his head off the ground. I feel good, feel fit, feel good about my game for the last part of the season.”
He was delighted to finish off Ireland’s second try, one crafted on the training ground and executed with precision. Murray said: “Yeah, that’s part of our attack, there are certain instances where we [use] special plays, (like) goal line dropouts and that one came off. It was satisfying, we worked on that during the week.
“There are plenty of positives. We are not walking [around] with our heads down. Andy [Farrell] said in the dressingroom afterwards and the playing group felt it as well that we stayed in the fight and gave it a really good go. We go [into the second Test] with a pep in our step.”
