BROADCASTERS HAVEN’T GIVEN us a player cam option in the Six Nations yet. If it does happen in the future, Ireland number eight Caelan Doris would be a fine subject.
Many of Doris’ big contributions for Andy Farrell’s team are obvious. He’s a key ball-carrier, even if he is often strongly targeted by the opposition defence, while his slick passing is another strength.
But much of Doris’ best work is of the dirty variety. Many of the things he does well are easy to miss when watching live in the stadium. He is the kind of player whose value is better appreciated with a close rewatch of Ireland’s games.
Doris has always been a good jackal, chipping in with turnovers despite his 6ft 4ins height but he has become a relentless presence at the defensive breakdown in recent seasons. There are still highlight reel jackal steals but Doris has added excellent counter-rucking or ‘barging’ to his repertoire.
Doris’ defensive role for Ireland includes a huge amount of work in the opposition rucks.
Opta’s data shows that Doris has been involved in 33 opposition rucks in the three games in this Six Nations so far. Only England’s Ben Earl [34] and Wales’ Tommy Reffell [44] have been involved in more.
We see Doris at work in the instance below. Initially, he looks for the jackal turnover as Josh van der Flier tackles Dafydd Jenkins.
Doris is cleared onto the ground by the arriving Elliot Dee and Gareth Thomas.
But just watch the effect of his second action, with Doris fighting back up onto his feet and driving through Thomas.
Doris shifts Thomas back into Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams, who was just about to pass to his left but gets knocked onto the ground and has to change his plan.
Williams instead passes to the isolated Aaron Wainwright on his right and Ireland prop Andrew Porter can win a turnover penalty.
Doris’ excellent work in the previous breakdown is more subtle than Porter’s big turnover penalty, but that work from the Irish number eight is what lays the foundation for the poach.
This is typical of Doris, who has a habit of helping his team-mates to look good.
The 25-year-old has relished the responsibility to lay siege on the opposition breakdown, pointing to a couple of games as Ireland’s openside flanker as being important in developing his skills.
“Whenever I’ve had the opportunity to play seven over the last few years, it has been a little bit more of an emphasis on disrupting ball, trying to stick my head into rucks and be a bit of a nuisance,” says Doris.
“I’ve tried to bring that into eight or six as well if I’m playing there.”
Doris believes he has room for improvement with this work.
“The decision-making element is where I think I need to improve and not having any wastage, being decisive about when I can go in, when I can have a second effort after a tackle and cause a bit of disruption.
“It is pretty rewarding when you slow down the ball or cause a bit of upset for them and you see a turnover two or three phases later and you know that you’ve had an impact on that. It’s an area of the game that we speak about quite a bit – getting a second effort after your tackle – and it has been good for us.
“It’s like slow poison almost for a team when you are continually slowing down their ball and it feels almost inevitable that a turnover is coming off the back of it.”
As Earl leads the English charge to kill Ireland’s attacking momentum, Steve Borthwick’s men will be on notice about the threat of Doris on the other side of the ball this Saturday.
