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Doris and Roux out of Ireland's Six Nations opener with Wales, two uncapped players called up

(Photo by Getty Images)

Up-and-coming Ireland prospect Caelan Doris has been ruled out of the opening match of this year’s Guinness Six Nations, the IRFU announcing that the Leinster No8 and Connacht second row Quinn Roux have left the squad ahead of Sunday’s match away to Wales.

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Doris was expected to start at the Principality Stadium and his place in Andy Farrell’s Ireland squad has now been taken by uncapped Munster back row Gavin Coombes. Uncapped Leinster lock Ryan Baird takes the spot left vacant by Roux in the squad of 36 that was recently announced.

An IRFU media statement read: “Caelan Doris and Quinn Roux have returned to their respective provinces for further medical assessment.

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Andy Farrell and Johnny Sexton set the scene for Ireland’s Six Nations campaign

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Andy Farrell and Johnny Sexton set the scene for Ireland’s Six Nations campaign

“Caelan has flagged some symptoms that could be associated with concussion. He has returned to Leinster to allow his symptoms to be appropriately assessed and investigated. Quinn has a neck complaint that has not settled so he has returned to Connacht.

“Munster back row Gavin Coombes and Leinster lock Ryan Baird will train with the Ireland squad this week. All other squad members are expected to train this week.”

New Ireland assistant coach Paul O’Connell later added: “They are two injuries you don’t ever want to be messing around with, you have to be careful. I’m not sure we know the length of time on either of them. It’s frustrating for them and frustrating for us.

“Caelan is obviously a fantastic player. I worked with him in the U20s and he was incredible. He has that X-factor and we need those players in world rugby.”

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Last year’s Six Nations Test debut for Doris lasted just four minutes when he was concussed in the February game versus Scotland in Dublin.

He soon bounced back, returning three weeks later to feature off the bench versus England. He then went on to start five of Ireland’s last six matches this autumn, his last three outings coming at No8.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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