Sheehan happy to cop a few for team

[travelling_gerry]

NICK TAYLOR, The West Australian
April 27, 2011, 7:28 am

Abrasive Western Force scrum-half Brett Sheehan's value to his side was evident again on Saturday when he was at the heart of the courageous 26-21 win over the Bulls.

Clearly he got under the skin of some of the visiting South Africans, because on half-time he found himself on the end of a swift elbow to the head from Bulls prop Dean Greyling.

Greyling was probably lucky not to have found himself looking at a yellow card but the incident was missed by referee Mark Lawrence and his assistants.

It is the second time this year Sheehan has copped one to the head.

Queenslander Rod Davies was yellow-carded for a punch in the opening game of the season.

"I think I've got the most punched head in the comp at the moment," Sheehan joked.

"There's no hard feelings, it's part and parcel of the game. It stays out on the field and you get on with it."

Sheehan, 31, a feisty player and never one to back down from a physical or verbal confrontation, brought all his typical aggressive sniping around the rucks to Saturday's game, at times playing like a fourth loose forward.

And he has no intention of altering his stance.

"I've played like that all my career. I enjoy that aspect of it," he said. "It's good to help out the boys and if I can get in and help the forwards out then I've got no problem doing that."

Geraldton-born Sheehan, who has three Wallaby caps, moved to the Force last year after stints with the Queensland Reds and NSW Waratahs.

"We've got a good bunch of senior players here I want to step up and help lead from the front," he said.

"We have worked hard and we've got the belief back.

"We knew we've always had it, it's just starting to come together now. It's building nicely and hopefully that will lead us into Saturday.

"We're not going to rest on our laurels."

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...-few-for-team/

[Batto]

Top bloke Sheehan, one of my favourite players, got grit and balls, is he staying on next year?

[Tazzmania]

I thought I heard Nathan Sharpe mention on Ten last week that he had signed for a further year but seen nothing official since,

[sandgroperrugby]

I like the guy BUT he is taking way to long to get to the breakdown and this is slowing the ball to the back line substantially. This time allows the opposition to realign and nullify any overlaps the backs could have exposed.

[zimeric]

i dnot think hes slow.. hes just not as fast as say Burgess or Turner.. Not much difference between him and Genia in terms of speed of distribution.

He is a good scrumhalf across all aspects of his role..
other more favoured scrummies have individual traits that standout more than others such as: Burgess - ultimate sniper and good distribution.
Genia - Passing game is superb and excels in broken play.

[James]

Personally I think that Burgess is a very average distributor. His passes are rarely bullet speed and in front of the player.

Guys like Justin Turner are great to sub in for the final 20 minutes. Oppositions are tired and holes appear if you can get an attack moving quickly. I am really disappointed that he was ruled out for this year.

[GIGS20]

Personally I think that Burgess is a very average distributor. His passes are rarely bullet speed and in front of the player.

Guys like Justin Turner are great to sub in for the final 20 minutes. Oppositions are tired and holes appear if you can get an attack moving quickly. I am really disappointed that he was ruled out for this year.

Right on re JT James, Sheeno is the perfect Scrummie, and wears oppositions down, that's part of his charm, and also, I reckon, the speed of delivery is deliberate......lots of times on Saturday, he was there, waving his arms around, directing the forwards, string up, yet another, slow crash ball. That wears defenses down, and it's not like we were losing the ball in the rucks, so no harm no foul.

After 50 minutes of that though, most big packs would not be able to handle a JT type, who gets the ball out of EVERY ruck like lightning and doesn't mind taking it to the gap himself.

Put like that, it sounds like a pretty bloody good combination.

[Hoolly Doolly]

I think hes only been slow while waiting for the forwards to get organized to form the pods to crash into the defensive lines. When the call has been to spread the ball wide he's been relatively quick depending on how clean the ball comes out of the ruck of course. Game 1 against the reds when our forwards clearly dominated at the breakdown his recycling was very fast and impressive. The lack of combination between 12/13 and JOC at flyhalf(inability to create long range cut out passes ala QC) had more to do with starving our outside backs at that point.

[zimeric]

my thoughts exactly Haji. i just failed to make much sense of them on paper

[Ecky]

Consider this folks:

Every scrum half who is the substitute mid-2nd half looks sharper than the scrum half he replaced. Every time.

It's just that he is fresh and has a specific "impact" role for the remainder of the match.

[GIGS20]

Consider this folks:

Every scrum half who is the substitute mid-2nd half looks sharper than the scrum half he replaced. Every time.

It's just that he is fresh and has a specific "impact" role for the remainder of the match.

Of course.......that was the effect I was banking on when suggesting that JT would be good to sub in with 20-30 to go. It would maximize the impact of a nippy little halfback, particularly when the opposition have used all their energy containing a solid, hard-assed scrumhalf!

[Burgs]

The "O'Young Effect"...

[normie]

Sometimes referred to as a bit of "OY!"

[BeeJay]

Sheehan this week against the saders will be an asset, especially getting into the face of their scrummie, and his impersonation of a loose forward.

[SleazyWineBaas]

I've always been a bit of a fan of Sheehan
He's a right nasty little b@stard who fights hard
His sniping is pedestrain however