When he damaged his anterior cruciate ligament in the first Test of Ireland’s summer tour of South Africa on July 6 of last year, there were doubts over Sheehan’s potential availability for the upcoming Championship. Yet 10 days on from being named in Simon Easterby’s 36-man squad for the tournament, Sheehan returned to competitive action in Leinster’s bonus point triumph over the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship.

Eager to make an impression before jetting off to Portugal on Sunday to join up with the Ireland squad at their pre-Six Nations training base in Quinta do Lago, Sheehan bagged a brace of tries during his 63 minutes on the pitch at Irish Rugby HQ.

“It’s probably a step up [to play in the Six Nations], but there’s no hesitation at all really on the knee. I’ll get over tomorrow [Sunday] and hopefully crack into another week’s prep for a match and see how we go,” Sheehan remarked after being named player of the match against the Stormers.

“There would be absolutely no hesitation from my end, to play or to be involved in any way. It depends on what the team wants and the backroom staff. I’m not sure, I haven’t really been speaking to anyone in the IRFU. I just focused on getting back this week and just kept the mind simple. I suppose we’ll find out during the week.”

Seeking to make it a 10th successive win in this season’s URC – and a 14th victory from as many games across all competitions in 2024/25 – Leo Cullen’s men opened up a 10-point lead over their Cape Town counterparts before the clocked had even reached 12 minutes on Saturday.

Following an early breakthrough penalty by Ross Byrne, Andrew Osborne (whose older brother Jamie is amongst a large Leinster contingent at Ireland’s Portuguese training camp) finished off an extended move with a smooth finish in the right-corner.

Yet although a touchline conversion from Byrne further established Leinster’s authority, a Stormers side containing a host of players who have been capped by South Africa at Test level eventually came to life with a Ben Loader try in the 21st minute.

In the wake of a successful bonus strike from Springbok star Manie Libbok reducing their advantage to three points, Leinster suffered a double blow when Liam Turner and Luke McGrath were both withdrawn through injury – the latter was later reported to be in good spirits after being stretchered off wearing a precautionary neck brace.

However, James Lowe was joining Sheehan in returning from a recent injury absence and he put the dynamic front-row through for his 37th provincial try at the very end of the opening period.

After a wayward conversion attempt by Byrne meant Leinster brought a 15-7 buffer into the interval, Leinster ultimately created further daylight when All Blacks star Jordie Barrett touched down during an otherwise scrappy third-quarter of action.

This put Leinster within reach of a bonus point and after he gathered a delicate kick towards the left-wing from Lowe at the beginning of the final-quarter, Sheehan made no mistake with another clinical finish over the line.

Osborne matched Sheehan’s try-scoring efforts with his second of the tie on the stroke of 70 minutes and even though Stormers bagged a late five-pointer from Evan Roos off a line-out move, it was a mere consolation for the South Africans in the end.

LEINSTER: H McErlean (W Connors 64); A Osborne, L Turner (C Tector 29), J Barrett, J Lowe; R Byrne, L McGrath (C Foley 39) (B Deeny 76)); J Boyle (P McCarthy 61), D Sheehan (J McKee 63), R Slimani (R McGuire 70); RG Snyman, B Deeny (D Mangan 55); A Soroka (J Culhane 60), S Penny, M Deegan.

DHL STORMERS: W Gelant; B Loader, R Nel, J Roche, L Zas; M Libbok (W Simelane 39), P De Wet (H Jantjies 63); A Vermaak (S Sithole 63), J Dweba (A-H Venter 53), N Fouche (B Harris 63); JD Schickerling (S Moerat 30), R Van Heerden; D Fourie (P De Villiers 63), B-J Dixon (M Theunissen 64), E Roos.

Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU).