The British and Irish Lions kick-off their nine match tour of Australia at HBF Park in Perth against Western Force, looking to hit the ground running after defeat by Argentina in Dublin last Friday.
Only two players, Sione Tuipulotu and Tadhg Beirne, will line up against the Australian team from last week’s beaten Lions side and their captain is clear that he wants passion from his players.
Speaking to the BBC, the Ireland hooker said: “I’m sure the Force will be 150% of what they usually are. They will be flying into it and that bit of extra hunger can produce some powerful things.
“They would have been eyeing this game up since they probably first stepped into that Western Force change room. It’ll mean an awful lot to them. But I don’t want them to think that they’re going to be hungrier than us. We have to demonstrate back our own mindset.”
Head coach Simon Cron says he’s been trying to convey to his players what a great opportunity this is for his Western Force squad, which finished as the lowest-ranked Australian team from this year’s Super Rugby Pacific.
Among their starting XV is former Exeter scrum-half Nic White. Ben Donaldson also comes in at full-back after Kurtley Beale picked up a hamstring injury in training.
Sheehan is expecting an easier time of things in terms of captaincy having taken over for this match from Maro Itoje who led the Lions during their defeat to Argentina.
“You look around the room and [see] so many individuals who are more than capable of captaining this team, and that is something that probably eases the nerves a little bit,” he said, “I don’t have to make it too difficult, I just need to be myself.”
Sheehan added: “I am quite a chill person, I feel like I have a good understanding of who I am and what excites me. I just sort of let these things happen in a weird way. I know that sounds like I am almost sat back, but I just don’t over-think it really.”
The tourists will head to Brisbane after this opener, where they’ll play Queensland Reds next Wednesday. They’ll also take on Waratahs, Brumbies and an invitational team made up of Australian and New Zealand players before the first Test against Australia on 19th July.
