Ireland's Caelan Doris can still find more to give

It seems hard to believe given his powerhouse performance against Scotland but Caelan Doris is still searching for more from his game

Tue, 10 Oct, 2023 - 01:10

Simon Lewis, Paris

It seems hard to believe given his powerhouse performance against Scotland but Caelan Doris is still searching for more from his game.

As part of a dominant back row that hassled and harried their Scottish counterparts in Saturday night’s ruthless 36-14 Pool B victory, the 25-year-old’s 80-minute tour de force delivered 22 successful tackles, 12 carries for 65 metres, and one turnover that was only half the story of a contribution that saw the Scots’ lives made a nuisance of at the breakdown and prey to some fearsome counter-rucking.

Doris bounced off the deck like a rubber ball in defence, ever eager to make the next tackle and yet the No 8 agrees with head coach Andy Farrell that there is plenty more to come from Ireland collectively while on an individual level he believes he can also be much more effective, starting back at Stade de France this Saturday night against World Cup quarter-final rivals New Zealand.

“From a personal point of view I definitely feel I can play a lot better, I’m sure a few of the other guys are feeling that way as well,” Doris said.

“It was a very good first half there, definitely, but disappointing to let them in second half and we weren’t quite as ruthless as we would have liked to have been, which might lead us into this week well, knowing there’s quite a few fix-ups still. Definitely room for improvement, we haven’t shown our best yet.

“I haven’t shown my best yet so excited to get stuck into the week and try and get a better performance next week.”

As part of the first intake of players when Farrell succeeded Joe Schmidt as Ireland boss in 2019, Doris has been at the vanguard of the nation’s Test rugby resurgence of the past three years, with a winning record against this Saturday’s opponents of four wins and one defeat, which came in the opening Test of a summer 2022 tour which ended with back-to-back victories and a historic first series success on New Zealand soil.

Captain Johnny Sexton made note in his post-match media conference on Saturday of All Black talisman Beauden Barrett’s comments last week that his team were hoping to play Ireland in the quarter-finals to get a chance to avenge that series defeat. Doris said that Test series has been part of a string of achievements under Farrell in a 17-Test unbeaten run that brings a bulletproof confidence to this squad that can work wonders for Ireland in a week such as this.

“Not just last summer but there’s been experiences this group has gone through over the last three or four years and the massive belief we have. Massive belief in the plan, massive belief in our coaches and each other and it’s based on the performances we’ve had, the wins we’ve had, like in New Zealand last summer. But not just that solely, there’s a huge amount of belief.

“We know New Zealand are going to be a lot better than the last time we faced them. They’re sort of out the other side of their development phase and are playing very good stuff. So it’s a very exciting week to be a part of and it’s going to be a massive test.”

Doris also revealed the process by which Ireland give themselves that fearless edge against Scotland and during every match week as the squad attempts to extend their winning run to a world record-equalling 18 Tests and make history by becoming the first Irish side to progress beyond the World Cup quarter-final stage.

“During the week we had spoken about not having played our best against (Scotland) over the last couple of years even though we’d had some pretty good performances. So we spoke about leaving our best out there and the first half wasn’t far from it, I thought.

“A pretty perfect start, wasn’t it, with James (Lowe) scoring the first one and we kicked on from there. A little bit disappointing to let them back in the second half but happy overall, I think.

“Johnny mentioned at the start of the week, you want to give as much respect to the opposition to almost build a fear amongst ourselves to maximise our preparation. Then as the week goes on, you turn on the confidence and belief from the performances that we’ve had.

“I think that’s served us well over the last while, to try and get the best out of ourselves in preparation through respecting the opposition and through doing our work and then as the week goes on, turn the page. Look at what we’ve done, look at the players we have, and draw confidence from that.”