Dan Sheehan: Andy Farrell has 'fingers crossed' after hooker injured foot against England

Dan Sheehan in action for IrelandInpho

Sheehan was winning his 18th Ireland cap

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has said he has his "fingers crossed" that hooker Dan Sheehan's foot injury is not a serious one.

The Leinster forward, 24, went off injured during Ireland's 29-10 win over England in their second of three World Cup warm-up games.

"Dan had a bit of a sore foot," Farrell told RTE Sport.

"We'll get him checked out and see how that is, so hopefully it's fingers crossed.

"Dan's lost a bit of power in his foot. It seems to be the same old story, doesn't it?

"We won't know until we get it looked at, scanned or whatever, so we'll probably know more in the morning [Sunday]."

A first-half try from Bundee Aki was added to by second-half scores from Garry Ringrose, James Lowe, man-of-the-match Mack Hansen and Keith Earls as Farrell's men recorded a fourth consecutive win over England.

The visitors had to play a significant period of the second half at the Aviva Stadium with 14 men after number eight Billy Vunipola was shown a yellow card for a challenge on Ireland prop Andrew Porter that was then upgraded to a red.

Earls is 'story of the day'

Inpho

Earls scored Ireland's fifth try against England

Earls' try marked a milestone occasion for the 35-year-old as he came off the bench to become the ninth man to win 100 caps for Ireland.

Farrell was full of praise for the Munster wing, whose try was a spectacular finish, but did not say if he would be part of his final World Cup squad.

"I'm happy with the result, happy with parts of our game but obviously the story of the day, we are delighted for Keith," he said.

"I mean, for him to come on and finish that try off in Keith Earls' style, which he has done so many times here, it was very fitting for everyone in Ireland.

"He's in fine nick, he's the fittest he's ever been. He's looking very sharp, so he's in a good place.

"It's fantastic we are able to make it a memorable day for the Earls family. They're all here so we're delighted for them."

Five tries at home 'very satisfying'

After falling behind to an early George Ford penalty in what was a somewhat slow start to the game, Ireland went ahead through Aki's converted try and rarely looked like losing after that.

Farrell will know his side can play better, but he was satisfied with the performance.

"It was a bit stop-start in the first half. Fair play to England, they've got a very good line-out defence and we couldn't get our game going probably because of that," he said.

"At the same time I was very pleased with how we found our rhythm back into our line-outs and the rest of our game started to flow on the back of that.

"[We scored] five tries at home and we missed a few kicks at goal. I know that didn't justify it on the scoreboard but it was very satisfying to get five tries and a win before we go to France."#

Farrell added: "We always want to be better. The message at half time was we just need to push ourselves to the edge a little, but more and enjoy that pain, take England where they don't want to go.

"I thought we were a bit shy in that, but that's probably down to the first game [for the starting 15]. However, we are two from two and next week is going to be a great week."

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