CAELAN DORIS’ NAME didn’t come up at the World Rugby awards last month but perhaps it should have.
The Leinster and Ireland number eight has been consistently superb throughout 2022 in both the green jersey of his country and the blue of his province.
The Mayo native made his Test debut in Andy Farrell’s first game in charge and has basically been ever-present since, the Ireland boss picking him to start at every single available opportunity.
Leinster’s back row is a competitive place but, again, Leo Cullen has always had Doris in his starting trio when he has been fit.
Saturday in Le Havre was just the latest in a long string of excellent performances from the 24-year-old number eight as he helped Leinster to beat Racing 42-10. The official player of the match demonstrated again that he can do it all in attack and defence.
With his lineout and maul skills, breakdown threat, passing and ball-carrying, Doris is a complete back row player. And it’s a sign of his mindset that speaking post-match, he honed in what might have been his only error of the game.
“It was disappointing to let that try in there at the end. Finn Russell is obviously a very dangerous player, I took my eyes off him for a second and he went through,” said Doris.
“Probably a work-on for me is the tackle and my tackle height. I’d like to bring more impact tackles into my game.”
That’s the thing – even though he is playing at such a high level, there is still room for Doris to get better. He already has 23 Ireland caps but the best is ahead of him.
“He’s hugely experienced at this point,” said Leinster boss Leo Cullen. “He showed a lot of leadership in underage teams and now he is bringing it to the senior team with Leinster and Ireland.
“He’s had some big performances over the past few weeks. Hopefully, he kicks on again. It is great to see those guys kick on because there is so much in them.”
Doris’ skillset is well balanced. When Leinster attack, he is a potent ball-carrying threat. He carried 13 times against Racing.
But Doris’ passing ability and decision-making mean he always has another option. There were seven passes from Doris in Le Havre.
“I’m just trying to read the pictures,” said Doris. “I’m pretty happy with the variation.
“A learning over the last few years has been not always just running full pace with the ball but kinda recognising if there are little plus or minus passes on, so that bit more variation is probably more difficult to defend against. I’m happy with that evolution.”
Doris threw a particularly lovely disguised pass out the back for Josh van der Flier’s first try against Racing as Leinster struck with a clever five-metre tap penalty routine.
“We’ve had that in the locker for a while so it was good to get it out and get the try for Josh,” said Doris.
The back row of Doris, van der Flier, and Ryan Baird worked well against Racing as Baird got his second consecutive start in the number six jersey.
23-year-old Baird later moved into the second row as Jack Conan came onto the pitch and Doris says there isn’t a huge difference depending on who is at blindside.
“When it has been myself and Jack at six and eight or vice versa, we’ve split the load between us. It’s similar with Ryan really, he’s obviously a bit of an athletic freak so it’s good having him there and Jack was very good off the bench I thought.”
Collectively, Leinster were happy with their set-piece work and the six tries their attack produced, but most pleasing of all was their fast start as they managed to score within four minutes of kick-off.
That was despite their 16-hour-plus trek to Le Havre on Friday.
“It was funny, it was curveball after curveball,” said Doris. “Initially the delay, then on the plane for a while before we took off, then circling around because of the fog, then the delays with the taxis. But we didn’t make a fuss out of it, we didn’t point the finger or get frustrated. We were almost just enjoying the funny circumstances and we didn’t let it affect us today I don’t think.”
Now it’s on to Gloucester.
“Friday night lights at the RDS is pretty special and we know there were a lot of fans who hoped to travel here who couldn’t,” said Doris, “so hopefully they’ll be there on Friday cheering us on at a full RDS.”
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