Bigger the game the better for Caelan Doris as he faces first French test

Saturday's game at the Stade de France will be the Mayo native' first game of professional rugby on French soil

Caelan Doris at Ireland training. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland

Ireland have a big game in Paris this Saturday and that suits Caelan Doris just fine.

The Leinster back-row has limited exposure to occasions of this significance. Still only 22, the Mayo native has just seven European games to his credit and three Ireland caps. Last week's dismantling of Italy in Dublin was his third but his first real chance to stretch his legs at test level.

It's a slim volume of work for a player facing into a game against a buoyant side at the Stade de France in a game where both have title ambition. Thing is, this type of rarified atmosphere has been his thing ever since he was turning out for Blackrock in his school days.

“I love playing in the big games,” he said. “The excitement in the week building up to it and the day itself is a bit special. You probably get a bit extra out of yourself on the day. It's incredibly special being involved in the big days. We play the game for weeks like this. We're all massively excited for Saturday.”

There won't be any spectators present on Saturday evening but this will still be his first game of professional rugby on French soil and his only real knowledge of what to expect has come from snatches of conversation with his older colleagues in camp.

Video analysis can only tell a player so much but he certainly doesn't require any help in identifying the nature of the threat that will face them when they come up against Fabien Galthié's home side at the weekend.

“They have quality through the team,” he said. “You saw some of the tries they scored against Wales there at the weekend. We're going to have to be better again than we were last week, away from home as well.

“You mentioned their pack and they have a quality back row, in particular, great carriers with (Charles) Ollivon and (Gregory) Alldritt so we will have to be on our game. We will need to put in a big performance and it will have to be even better than last week.”

If a week is a long time in rugby then the two years plus the rest of it that have gone by since these teams last met in Saint-Denis feels like forever and a look at the Ireland squad that scraped the victory that day only highlights that further.

None of the eight replacements that night will feature this week and only eight of the starters will take the anthems again. Of the back row, CJ Stander is the only survivor in the XV with Doris and Connors in now for Peter O'Mahony and Josh van der Flier.

Doris himself was still eligible for the U20s back in February of 2018 but a grade two hamstring tear ruled him out of the entire campaign with Noel McNamara's side, including a ten-point loss to a French team that had threatened to hammer them in Bordeaux.

Very few from either of those underage sides have yet to graduate to this senior test level which, again, shows just how rapidly Doris has shot through the ranks, and that ability to hit the ground running will be crucial in the battle of the back rows.

“It's going to be a massive challenge. The breakdown is becoming more important in the game. Speed of ball is hugely important and that stems from good breakdown work so we have put a lot of emphasis into that the last few days. That will be a big area for the back-row.”