Caelan Doris counters 'vulnerable Ireland' claims from Fijian camp

Doris assumed Lomani’s comments were based on high Irish penalty counts in their opening two Tests of the month, a 23-13 defeat by New Zealand and 22-19 win over Argentina.

FIJI PREP: Stuart McCloskey, left, Sam Prendergast, centre, and Caelan Doris during an Ireland Rugby captain's run. Pic: by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Caelan Doris has countered Fijian claims his Ireland side are vulnerable but believes pre-game comments from their camp could add some needle to Saturday’s Autumn Nations Series clash at Aviva Stadium.

The Ireland captain was responding to comments from Fiji scrum-half Frank Lomani that reflect the Pacific Islanders’ growing confidence on the back of a victory over Wales in Cardiff two weeks ago. The Flying Fijians have beaten Spain since but Lomani upped the ante ahead of the Dublin clash by claiming the Irish could be broken.

"We are in good form moving into the weekend, big positivity," Lomani said. "We spoke about it the last two days that Ireland was the number one team a few months ago.

"At the moment they are so vulnerable that we as a team and as a group we can counter that.

"The team is not really like a few months ago when Sexton was playing. There were a very good team, solid. But attack-wise and defensively as a team, if we work together we can break them.” 

Doris’s response was not dismissive when he spoke to media following his captain’s run press conference at the Aviva on Friday morning but assumed Lomani’s comments were based on high Irish penalty counts in their opening two Tests of the month, a 23-13 defeat by New Zealand and 22-19 win over Argentina.

"I haven't seen too much of it, to be honest with you,” the Irish skipper and No.8 said. “I think they'll probably be confident based off a couple of their results and how they've gone against Wales and Spain last week.

"If it's off the discipline they're looking at, I'm not sure exactly, but there's a lot of belief within our camp still.

"We feel we have the right people showing us the way and there's excitement about what we can do.

"The discipline has obviously been talked about a lot and it's been an area that has been very good for us historically, so we're looking forward to getting back on track there tomorrow.” 

Asked whether Lomani’s words could bring a bit more needle into |Saturday afternoon’s match, Doris said: “Yeah I think so. I mean we definitely respect them, how they play, the two things you look at are their pace and their skillset, the way they throw the ball around, but also they’re a very powerful team.

“It’s going to be a very physical game. I remember the one a couple of years back for how physical it was. It’s going to be the same tomorrow and looking forward to the challenge of that.”