Sheehan: Grand Slam grit 'valuable' for All Blacks clash

Dan Sheehan believes the nature of Ireland's Grand Slam victory over England will stand to the team when they face the might of New Zealand tomorrow evening in Paris.

Andy Farrell’s side wrapped up the Six Nations title with a hard-fought 29-16 victory over the Red Rose last March.

Unprecedented 14-point favourites coming into the Aviva Stadium clash, Ireland had to dig deep to eventually overcome a dogged English resistance.

Farrell, at the time, admitted it "wasn’t the best performance" but was pleased that they "ground" out a result.

Not playing well and still finding a way gives the team confidence, according to hooker Sheehan, speaking to reporters ahead of their Rugby World Cup quarter-final clash at Stade de France (8pm).

"I think those sort of games where it’s win or die, it’s extremely valuable," said the 25-year-old Leinster man.

"You’ve got to go out and perform and that probably wasn't our best game at all. We took a good review out from that game and we saw a lot of areas that we could improve on.

"When it comes down to it, you just have to figure out how to win the game.

"If tomorrow goes to the end or if we have extra-time or anything, we just have to make sure we win the game.

"There’s obviously plans in place to make sure we don’t get to that point and we hope that we are in a position that we don’t have to scramble.

"Looking back to those times we didn’t perform but then came out on top is valuable."

Number 8 Caelan Doris, who has won three out of four games against the All Blacks, spoke about the moments before kick-off and facing the famous haka.

"There’ll be excitement, there’ll be a lot of nerves," said the 25-year-old.

"Usually, for me, the nerves peak a couple of hours out and as we get to the changing room