Doris: Irish fitness and 'smarts' can counter Springbok beef

DIFFERING STRATEGIES: Caelan Doris poses for a portrait after an Ireland rugby media conference at Complexe de la Chambrerie. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

South Africa may have a team of very big men and a bench full of forwards but Caelan Doris is confident Ireland’s conditioning and “smarts” can counter any Springbok beef.

This Saturday night’s crunch at Stade de France is brewing up nicely as Andy Farrell’s world number one-ranked side prepare to face the defending champions in what promises to be a World Cup Pool B barnstormer. 

South Africa’s customary early team announcement last night, complete with seven forward replacements only added to the sense of anticipation, as did the presence on the bench of Munster second-row duo Jean Kleyn and RG Snyman.

Yet for all the Springboks’ heft and allied aggression, Ireland’s No.8 Doris exuded a relaxed but steely confidence yesterday as he assessed the challenge ahead for the Six Nations Grand Slam winners after training at their Stade de la Chambrerie in Tours.

With maximum points and 20 tries from their opening two matches, a record 82-8 drubbing of Romania on the opening weekend and last Saturday’s 59-16 defeat of Tonga, morale in the Irish camp is sky-high ahead of the Parisian sell-out. 

Ireland’s recent back story is also providing confidence, including as it does a series win in New Zealand in 2022 and victory over Jacques Nienaber’s Boks in Dublin last November. Though Doris believes both sides have evolved considerably since that meeting, it is Ireland’s fitness and execution under pressure that Doris believes will stand to his side when kick-off finally arrives on Saturday night.

“Yeah, I think it’s been a great pre-season for us and the lads are in pretty optimal shape I would say, some of our best condition I’ve seen over the last few years,” he said. “We back our fitness against most teams and back our smarts as well. I’m pretty confident in that area.

“Yes it is not just their size, it is the way they play. They are very direct off number nine. They will sometimes have two or three players latched onto a carrier and try and drive them over the gain-line.

“It is the way they maul. The way they aggressively go after the ruck. It is partly their size and their actual physicality but then partly the mindset and the way they play that comes with that.

“We have good ball-playing forwards. We have multiple threats in that we have good carriers but we also have people who are capable of tipping the ball on, giving passes, giving wider passes, so it is not just tuck and carry. There is footwork, passes and the carry threat. Hopefully defences find that a little bit intimidating.” 

 Scrum coach John Fogarty yesterday outlined the message to the Irish squad from management this week not to bow to the excitement around this upcoming match and rush headlong into it but take one step at a time in the build-up. Doris put a little more meat on that bone, relaying similar wisdom from forwards coach Paul O’Connell.

“It’s interesting because Paulie actually spoke to us earlier and said ‘On these weeks, you can feel like you need to do way more, but trust in what we have done over the last while. Trust in our good habits, in our training, in our drills.’ “It’s not that we are just building this week, but what we have built over the last few years.

“But having said that then, there is a special feeling to the week. We know we need to deliver our best and what comes with that is maybe little extra conversations or an extra walk-through in the evening or a bit of extra video, extra visualisation, things like that, just to make sure you are fully across the board.

“But Paulie’s point was, ‘Enjoy the week and when you’re off, you’re off, don’t get over stressed about thinking you have to do way too much this week. A lot of the work is done.’” Doris repeated another Ireland mantra during his media session yesterday, the squad’s relentless quest for improvement under head coach Andy Farrell.

“There are two parts to our evolution. Some is adding extra bits and new layers like the goal-line drop-outs. And then the other is just getting better at the basics. There is a lot of belief in our attack and when we deliver on it, it can cause damage to teams.

“So, just being more consistent and delivering on that.” With the Springboks narrow favourites given their impressive summer form, including that 35-7 defeat of New Zealand at Twickenham last month and an 18-3 pool defeat of Scotland 10 days ago, Doris was asked if Ireland felt a need to prove themselves all over again this weekend.

“Yeah,” came the reply, “probably more prove to ourselves as opposed to other people. I think there’s so much belief amongst this group and there’s belief that we can still get a lot better.

“Delivering that in such a big game in Paris in front of 80,000 people – hopefully there will be a lot of Irish there – is just about constantly getting better as a group and believing that we can improve quite a bit. We are always striving for the perfect performance.”