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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Michael Scully

Caelan Doris firmly in the spotlight as England ready to pay him special attention

Caelan Doris jokes that his scrum cap has provided some camouflage since pack leader James Ryan also wears one.

"I'm a little more incognito," the Mayo man laughed.

Tadhg Beirne is another who wears a scrum cap but, in truth, the performances Doris has produced for Ireland since returning from a concussive symptoms break last year have marked him out from the crowd.

"I've thoroughly enjoyed it so far," he said. "Obviously the two home games especially, being the two wins, but also having the home crowd.

"But the experience over in Paris was...the result didn't go our way but it was an experience in quite a hostile and loud atmosphere as well. It's another good learning experience to have under the belt."

There's no doubt that Saturday's opponents will target Doris, who was Ireland's outstanding player in the November series clean sweep and when he was especially good against the All Blacks.

But then the 23-year-old admits that he has noticed extra attention on him since the second of two losses he has endured at the home of English rugby.

"On the pitch, maybe feeling a little bit more pressure sometimes with carries, I think that's probably going back to November 2020 when we played over in Twickenham," said Doris.

"Obviously there was no crowd but a big learning then was the ability to use our plus and minus options, clever clip-ons on the line instead of just always trying to win the gain line yourself.

"So it's having a few more strings rather than just carries, trying to keep getting better at the ability to off-load or clip it just before contact if defenders are coming in, trying to use that as an advantage."

The versatile Leinster back row - he can play effectively in any of the three positions - is hungry to improve and, still at a young age, he has the potential to be a star at the next World Cup.

Working Stuart Lancaster at Leinster and Farrell with Ireland has helped him to thrive.

"He (Farrell) has backed me all the way from the start, asking me to play to my strengths, believing in what I can do and being myself as a player is a big thing that he always says to us," Doris explained.

"And then it's just trying to be as grounded as possible, so obviously focusing on your strengths but trying to fill the other areas as well and keep getting better at those."

Whether Ireland as a collective will finally step up to embrace the big stage remains to be seen.

Red Rose supremo Eddie Jones went heavy on the hyperbole at the start of the week, insisting that Ireland were the 'most cohesive team in the world'.

Whatever about that, Doris is excited about the potential that is in Andy Farrell's team on the back of a 12-month winning run that finally ended in Paris last month.

“We’ve seen it in patches but we definitely haven’t gotten a full 80 minute performance - even going back to November we didn’t have it there," he said.

"We had it in parts against Italy but obviously they were down to 13.

"We had it in parts over in Paris as well and, against Wales, it was probably the most we’ve had it this year.

"The consistency of it and all being on the same page is the important part.

"The way we train sets us up to be pretty cohesive as well, getting quite a bit of reps in our unstructured stuff and trying to learn different people’s nuances and what they are going to do."

And Doris added: "There’s massive faith in what the coaches are trying to bring and all the players in the whole squad are taking it on board and are excited by how we want to play.

"We’ve seen what it can do when we get it right and as you said it’s exciting, the thought of what we can really do when we get it right more often.”

"So that's the challenge."

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