‘It’s just bitter’ – Rónan Kelleher sees no solace in Dan Sheehan’s injury as he steps up against Springboks

Dan Sheehan's anterior cruciate ligament paves the way for his rival at Leinster and Ireland to have a free run at the jersey for Saturday's season-closer against South Africa and the first-half of next season.

He’s not celebrating that fact, knowing too well how difficult injuries are to deal with and what a loss the world-class Sheehan will be.

The nature of their position means they work a 1-2 combination, with Kelleher more often the replacement.

South Africa tour daily - July 8th

But he's been a starter in plenty of big games, having scored in a win over the All Blacks in 2021 and set the tone physically against the Springboks at the World Cup and he’s about as good a replacement as Ireland could have wished for.

“It's just bitter,” he said when asked if it was bittersweet to lose a rival in that way.

“You never want to see a teammate injured, hurt or anything like that.

“I wouldn't say bittersweet at all, it's unfortunate but that's sport. We'll deal with it as a group and move on quickly.

“Absolutely, he’ll be a big loss. There's competition in the squad, we just need to do our job, make sure put our best foot forward and leave the team in a good place.”

Kelleher came on at half-time on Saturday and was at the centre of a key moment when the television match official deemed he’d played the ball with his feet, while not supporting his weight, in the build-up to James Lowe’s try.

Lowe’s score would have made it 13-13 with the conversion to come, but Ben Whitehouse recommended it be ruled out.

“It’s tough in the heat of the moment. I went in to try and hook the ball backwards, it's fine margins in Test matches that decide things and unfortunately we came out the wrong side of it,” he said.

“I'm on the ground, trying to hook it.

“We're not dwelling on that, we're just looking to control what we can control and you've to leave all that stuff aside and get better ourselves at the whole game really.”

He had an eventful evening, seeing yellow as he took one for the team for the scrum penalty try that ultimately ended the game.

The lucky dip card wasn't his concern, but Ireland know they need to up their game at set-piece.

“As a whole we'll have to improve on that, at times in the game it went well and then it dropped off a touch at times,” he said.

“So, it's just about knit-picking through those little details we might have got wrong or weren't accurate with and try and right those wrongs for this week coming.”

Ireland, he says, believe they can level the series despite their injury concerns.

“We're very confident, it's just more fine details that we need to try and fix to change the outcome of some of those moments. We're confident we can fix them.”