Dan Sheehan has challenged his British and Irish Lions team-mates to match the passion of the Western Force underdogs in Saturday’s tour opener in Australia.
Sheehan will captain a Lions team with only two starters – Sione Tuipulotu and Tadhg Beirne – who were in the XV for the defeat by Argentina on Friday.
“I’m sure the Force will be 150% of what they usually are,” said the 26-year-old Ireland hooker.
“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.”
Western Force were the lowest-ranked Australian side in this year’s Super Rugby Pacific, but their head coach Simon Cron said much of their preparation had involved impressing on the players the magnitude of the opportunity.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime for a lot of these guys,” said Cron.
“We sat as a group and had a bit of a yarn about how old were you 12 years ago [when the Lions last toured Australia], how old will you be 12 years from now.
“That’s the importance of this game and the special type of game that it is. They are under no illusion around that.”
