Ireland want to mark trio's retirement with best Six Nations performance

Doris said it was "tricky" watching moments from the defeat to France with the "images and the frustration around that".

BONUS BLACKOUT: Caelan Doris refused to speculate about Ireland getting a bonus point this weekend given how well Italy have performed in this year's Six Nations. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Caelan Doris has dismissed the notion Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations final match is an anti-climax with between 25,000 and 30,000 Irish supporters descending on the Italian capital for Saturday’s game.

Ireland could have as much as 40% of the 68,000-capacity Stadio Olimpico crowd on their side when captain Doris leads his side out with a mission to atone for the previous Saturday’s heavy defeat at home to France.

The 42-27 loss at Aviva Stadium ended Irish hopes of a Grand Slam and has handed the title race initiative to the French, seriously jeopardising ambitions to become the first Six Nations-era side to three titles in a row. 

Yet with such big numbers making the journey to Rome for Saint Patrick’s weekend, and the Ireland squad wanting to mark the end of team-mates’ Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray and Cian Healy’s international careers with their best performance of the 2025 campaign, Doris sees the clash with Italy as anything but an anti-climax.

“Given the three lads finishing up, obviously last week was very disappointing and it changes the nature of the end of it, but for us it's still about finishing with our best performance, the rest is out of our control.

“But the three lads, what they've contributed, the group we have, we really want to finish with our best performance yet and that's been a key theme through the week. Obviously there was quite a bit of disappointment for 24, 48 hours post-game and it can be tricky seeing some of the clips back and the images and the frustration around that.

“But we turned the page quite quickly and getting excited about a special weekend over here with our best performance yet in front of, I believe there are 25,000 or 30,000 Irish travelling over, which will be incredibly special.” 

Ireland’s only hope of claiming the title is to start the Super Saturday proceedings with a bonus point win and hope both second-placed England, in the penultimate game against Wales in Cardiff, and new leaders France in the finale at home to Scotland, are beaten. Yet Doris believes talk of bonus points is dangerous when Italy pose so many attacking threats, regardless of recent heavy defeats to both the English and French.

“I don't think you can think about that too quickly given how Italy have gone. They obviously got a win over here against Wales in round two and they've shown quality. They showed quality in the first half against England last week, so we can't take any result for granted but of course given the context and the bigger picture we'll be chasing the bonus point but the result is the most important thing.”