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Caelan Doris makes brutal admission after rewatching Ireland RWC exit

By PA
Ireland captain Caelan Doris/ PA

Caelan Doris is determined to harness the painful lessons of Ireland’s World Cup anguish as he prepares to begin his captaincy against New Zealand.

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The 26-year-old admits he underperformed last October when Irish dreams of lifting the Webb Ellis Cup were extinguished by a heartbreaking 28-24 quarter-final loss to the All Blacks in Paris.

Doris has been a leading star of the Andy Farrell era and was named skipper for this month’s Autumn Nations Series, having twice previously fulfilled the role on a temporary basis.

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The back-row forward describes his leadership style as “actions first” and is intent on delivering a performance in Friday evening’s sold-out Aviva Stadium showdown following last year’s disappointment.

“I’ve obviously reflected on that game and I know it wasn’t near one of my best performances or where I can get to,” he said of the quarter-final.

Fixture
Internationals
Ireland
15:10
8 Nov 24
New Zealand
All Stats and Data

“It’s all part of the journey and the evolution of a player and of a person.

“I’m sure that game, some of the lessons from it, will lead to further development and growth for me.

“I’m looking forward to putting that into action.”

Ireland have regained top spot in the global rankings after bouncing back from their latest World Cup agony by retaining the Guinness Six Nations title and then securing a creditable 1-1 series draw in South Africa.

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Doris captained the team for the 25-24 second-Test success over the Springboks after also leading February’s 36-0 drubbing of Italy.

Having now officially taken the responsibility from veteran flanker Peter O’Mahony, the number eight is beginning to feel at home in a role initially left vacant by the retirement of Johnny Sexton.

“I wouldn’t quite say it’s second nature but definitely I’m getting more comfortable in it,” said Doris, who made his international debut in the first match of Farrell’s reign as head coach, a 19-12 Six Nations win over Scotland in 2020.

“I’m starting to enjoy it more.

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“Between the coaches we have and the experience within the leadership group, the load is very much spread across everyone, so I don’t feel too much extra pressure or responsibility on me.

“Of course, there is some given the role but I’m becoming more settled in it.”

Ireland are seeking a 20th successive home victory.

The hosts, who also take on Argentina, Fiji and Australia in the coming weeks, have won five of their past nine clashes with New Zealand.

“Every time we play them, there is a good rivalry, mutual respect, there is two good top sides going against each other and tomorrow night will be no different,” said Doris.

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“From last Monday when we first came together, it was about our progression, our evolution, getting better, and tomorrow night’s a big test in doing that.

“A Friday night game, here in the Aviva, packed out against New Zealand, you can’t get better than this.”

Doris is also being touted as the potential British and Irish Lions captain for the 2025 tour of Australia, which will be overseen by Ireland boss Farrell.

“I’m not looking there at all to be honest,” he said.

“I’m not reading into any of that, just trying to take it week by week and focus on myself and my evolution without thinking too far ahead.”

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Tom 3 hours ago
Borthwick, it's time to own up – Andy Goode

The problem for me isn't the pragmatic playstyle, it's that there is no attacking gameplan whatsoever.


I've got no issue with a methodical, kick heavy, defense centric gameplan. That playstyle won England our only world cup and it's won SA 4 of them. However! You can play in a pragmatic manner but you have to still play heads-up rugby and have the ability to turn it on when you manufacture prime attacking situations. England work very hard to get in the right areas of the pitch and have no idea how to convert when they get there, hence we tried and missed 3 drop goals as we were completely impotent in the 22. I've not seen any improvement in our attack in the last 4-5 years. The only time we got close to the tryline was from an interception, it's embarrassing. I don't know what Richard Wigglesworth is getting paid for.


I agree that England should have found a way to close out that game. Being able to grind out tough games is critical but I'd argue that being unable to string more than a couple of passes together without dropping it and finding a way to get over the gainline is even more important... But frustratingly, they don't seem interested. All you hear is about how close we are to bring a great team, we just need to execute a bit better. I don't see it. I see a team who are very physical, very pragmatic who do some stuff really well and are useless with the ball in hand which adds up to a very average side. They need to stop focusing on getting 5% better at the stuff we're already at an 8/10 level and focus on getting a lot better at the stuff we're doing at a 2/10 level. We have the worst attack of pretty much any side in the world... Argentina, Scotland, Fiji are way more threatening.

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