Caelan Doris on All Blacks: 'It’s a good rivalry and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it'
Leinster and Ireland captain Caelan Doris is looking forward to kicking off the November fixtures under ligths against New Zealand.Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
And breathe. Munster’s meeting with an All Blacks XV in Limerick this Saturday will keep the rugby wheel turning on these shores. That aside, this is a week to take stock with the URC on pause and the first of Ireland’s November Tests still two weekends in the distance.
If nothing else, then, this is a time to let excitement levels simmer. The only regret with Ireland’s schedule - with four games due against New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia – is that we won’t be welcoming the world champion Springboks back to these shores.
Still and all, November will start with a bang here when Scott Robertson’s Kiwis come to town. It’s a game that would get the juices flowing at dawn on a Tuesday morning. The fact it will kick-off under Friday night lights only adds to the anticipation.
“I think it’s conducive to a pretty good atmosphere,” Caelan Doris smiled.
The scene in and around Ballsbridge will be electric before the game as punters drift in and out of the bars and restaurants from rush hour on. This being Ireland, though, there will be the usual jibes about how these are really only ‘friendly’ affairs.
The inauguration of a new World League from 2026 onwards is designed to add some extra competitive scaffolding to these autumn and summer cross-hemisphere tours, but the Ireland captain had a simple answer for anyone doubting the fare to come.
“Just watch the game. They are by no means friendly encounters. There’s extreme levels of competition, there’s always something on the line. Look at any of the games we’ve played against [New Zealand] over the last number of years. I think there’s mutual respect built.
“We’ve obviously always respected them given their legacy in rugby really but I think they’re starting to respect us more over the last five/six years, probably since 2016 really. So, yeah, it’s a good rivalry and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it.” Robertson named a 36-man squad for their northern tour that he said would allow them to continue their evolution, add some new blood to the gene pool and pick up some results. Pretty much every coach would say the same thing.
Ireland’s month or so to come will be framed slightly differently to everyone else with Andy Farrell taking temporary leave of absence once the Wallabies game is done and starting life as British and Irish Lions head coach through to next summer.
That’s been well signposted by now. Lieutenants like Simon Easterby and Paul O’Connell will be primed to step up to the mantle for the Six Nations and the 2025 summer tour to Eastern Europe, the former in a capacity as acting boss.
The idea is that Farrell and Irish rugby will both benefit by this arrangement. This process of personal development for some of the main men involved will extend to the captain with Doris taking charge of the armband on a permanent basis for the first time.
It’s a role that continues to carry weight and prestige but one that maybe isn’t the singular job of yesteryear with the development of player leadership groups and the stripping away of the table-thumping sergeant-major side of things in the modern game.
Doris was, by his own admission, something of a reluctant skipper at first. He has grown into the idea both with club and with country now but Farrell continues to have an enormous influence on what this team does and how it does it.
That much was evident again when Doris was asked how important his own influence would be when the squad came together on Monday in terms of the tone being set and the need to embrace some of the new faces into the broader collective.
“Faz does such a good job of that. We were chatting about it, a few of us recently, that he’s been in rugby environments since he was 16, the whole way through, and went straight from a player into coaching. He’s got such a good feel for what the environment needs, what the group needs.
“Whether it’s schedule or what he says, he always hits the nail on the head. It’s a very inclusive environment, big emphasis on being yourself. Trying to make it relaxed when we’re off and properly on when we’re on. The environment caters for a lot of that, but of course it has to be led by the leadership group as well to a certain extent.
“The way he does it makes it a lot easier for the players.” Plenty to look forward to, so, starting with a first meeting of Ireland and the All Blacks since that epic World Cup quarter-final in Paris over a year ago. Ireland have won nine November Tests against the four big SANZAAR sides now stretching all the way back to 2016.
Their conquerors, then? The Kiwis. Bring it on.
Jack Crowley has been the main man at out-half for Ireland since Johnny Sexton’s retirement but the perception is that the gap has closed between the Munster man and Ciaran Frawley now that the latter is being given his wings in the same jersey at Leinster.
Frawley has recovered quicker than expected from an ankle injury suffered against Connacht two weekends ago and he will be given the chance to build on that winning second Test drop goal against the Boks with game time in the coming weeks.
Dan Sheehan’s long-term absence was compounded when Rónan Kelleher did his ankle against Benetton in round three of the URC. Like Frawley, though, Kelleher is recovering sooner than expected, but will he be fit for the All Blacks?
Rob Herring, also named in the squad, hasn’t played a single minute yet this season and that turns the focus on Connacht’s Dave Heffernan who has never started for Ireland and earned the last of seven caps over two years ago.
Keep an eye out for Leinster academy hooker Gus McCarthy who has started five times for Leinster this season and is one of five ‘training panellists’ added to the Ireland collective for November.
Back row has been a source of huge strength for Irish rugby. Caelan Doris is a cert to start the big games at No.8 while Josh van der Flier continues to have Andy Farrell’s complete faith at seven even as Leinster have brought him off the bench in finals.
But No.6? Peter O’Mahony has been injured but makes the squad. Jack Conan doesn’t, having added to his CV on the blindside lately. Ryan Baird has been sidelined too. Maybe Tadhg Beirne returns to six and James Ryan and Joe McCarthy both start at lock.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
