Ireland captain Dan Sheehan says his side are “ready to rip” into Saturday’s Chicago Test against New Zealand as he brushed aside talk of the squad being “undercooked”.
Sheehan is one of several Ireland players with only one game under his belt since the British and Irish Lions tour in the summer.
But the hooker insists Ireland will be ready for the latest chapter of their All Blacks rivalry at Soldier Field as Andy Farrell’s team attempt to replicate the famous 2016 win over the southern hemisphere giants at the home of the Chicago Bears.
“I’ve seen a good bit [of talk] that we might be undercooked, but I don’t think it’s a massive part,” said Sheehan, who will lead Ireland with squad skipper Caelan Doris on the bench.
“I think the way we’ve prepped over the last two weeks has been through real tough training [sessions] and we can take confidence from that and how we trained.
“Obviously a few lads have played a bit more game time but I think people are good and refreshed bodies ready to rip into Saturday.”
While Ireland’s frontline players have not played together since the Six Nations, New Zealand have completed a three-Test series against France and a six-game Rugby Championship campaign since July.
“We’ve obviously had two different journeys as teams over the last few months and you can look at it both ways,” added Sheehan.
“Some are fresh, some are battle-hardened, whatever way you look at it. The reality is it doesn’t matter.
“Both teams are full of world-class players and professionals that are well able to rock up on a day and put out their best performance. I suppose we’ll see tomorrow, but I don’t think it’ll be a factor.”
Saturday will be the second time Sheehan has captained Ireland, while he also led the British and Irish Lions to victory over the Western Force in June.
While leading the side out at Soldier Field will be a significant moment in the 27-year-old’s career, Sheehan insists it has been business as usual for him in the build-up.
“Nothing majorly changes for myself or my own prep and I’ll go about my business as usual obviously with a bit of a mind on the rest of the lads.
“There’s so many leaders in our group and we’ve got a great leadership group that almost do the work for us and throughout the years we’ve always sort of just taken our own little bits through the week that we have to lead.”