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How Caelan Doris found 'peace of mind' after his concussion issues

(Photo by PA)

Ireland back-rower Calean Doris has reflected on how he went from a concussion nightmare at the start of 2021 to finish the year getting voted as the Autumn Nations Series player of the tournament. It was February 2 when the IRFU announced that the forward had pulled out of Andy Farrell’s squad for a Six Nations campaign that was starting with an away assignment in Wales.

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Caelan has flagged some symptoms that could be associated with concussion,” read a statement at the time. “He has returned to Leinster to allow his symptoms to be appropriately assessed and investigated.”

Having had a previous history of concussions, a lengthy break was recommended. It wasn’t until mid-April that he got back into the Leinster and even then there was a sting in the tail, a calf injury during a captain’s run scratching him from the team to play Munster in the Rainbow Cup and delaying his comeback another month before he got back versus Ulster.  

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Since then, though, the 23-year-old Doris has accelerated through the gears, re-establishing himself at his province and taking his career to a new level with Ireland where he was at the forefront of the compelling November victory over the All Blacks.  

With the 2022 Six Nations now on the horizon, Doris took time out this week to appear as a guest on The Rugby Pod, reflecting on his eventful 2021 and explaining how a scrum cap is helping to give him some added protection. He also had a message to any rugby player suffering from concussive symptoms – don’t delay in getting your issue checked out.

“I have no affiliation with the company but I’m enjoying the scrum cap,” explained Doris, fresh from last Sunday’s record European win with Leinster. “It’s N-Pro, an Irish company based out of Galway, and they have done some studies. It’s a particular fabric that is shown to reduce force, it sort of disperses the force across the scrum cap which is different to other scrum caps. 

“A fair few studies have shown that it can help with blows to the head and reduce the chances of getting concussed. A lot of concussions are the whiplash effect so it is not going to do much for that but sort of blunt forces to the head, I have found it useful anyway although it hasn’t stopped me from getting my face battered over the last few weeks. But no, I like it.”

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Looking back on how his worrying concussion issues were dealt with, Doris, the ten-cap Ireland pick, was delighted with the level of care he received despite his anxiety. “It [care] is definitely moving in the right direction… the thing needs to be taken pretty seriously and it is being done so for the most part. I was incredibly happy with how I was looked after. 

“I was getting increasingly worried and worried about some symptoms that I have spoken about before. They are heightened by the anxiety around it all… am I hyper-vigilant and noticing it more or is it actually happening, so the anxiety around it was definitely tied into it heavily for me. 

“Taking a break and being looked after by all the best people and having baselines across the board, going forward now it gives me much more peace of mind. I know we obviously have baselines at the start of each season but potentially more comprehensive ones going forward could be an area for development. Even just having conversations about it more and sort of not treating it as any other injury is going to be beneficial as well, just open communication and dialogue around it. 

“It was tough. At the start, I was able to compartmentalise, I was enjoying the rugby and I was playing quite well and on a bit of an upward trajectory. I was able to hide it [concussive symptoms] and say I will be able to deal with it later if they keep going on or push it to the side. What I can say now, and what I can say with the benefit of hindsight, is if there is anyone going through something similar just get it checked at the very start. 

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“The likelihood is you are going to be fine, maybe take a little break and you will be absolutely grand. The opposite of letting it build up and build up potentially you could do some damage and there might be bigger repercussions. So get it checked while it is a smaller issue.”

Getting peace of mind about his own situation was a gamechanger for Doris as he emerged as a star of the unbeaten Ireland November campaign. “It was cool. The whole Autumn Nations, the camp, all the games, I loved all of it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and that was partly due to the rough start to the year I had. 

“Being capped off with being named player of the tournament as well, it was nice although I think the whole of my hometown Ballina voted for me so it was probably skewed a little bit but I’ll take it.”   

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Flankly 0 minute 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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Nickers 10 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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Nickers 39 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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