Caelan Doris says there won’t be a void in the Ireland set-up when Andy Farrell goes on Lions sabbatical after the final game of the Autumn Nations Series at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow (3.10pm kick-off).
Assistant coach Simon Easterby takes over as interim head coach for next year’s Six Nations and summer tour as Farrell prepares to take charge of the Lions Tour to Australia next summer.
Ireland will look to sign-off 2024 with their third win of the November series when they play Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies.
And ahead of Farrell’s final game in charge of Ireland before he takes leave, Doris says he has trust in the other coaches taking over in Farrell’s absence.
“I haven’t thought too much about it to be honest with you. Definitely have a lot of faith in the other coaches. Like, Faz is unbelievable, and when you’ve got such a big figure leaving you think there would be a void, but it does tend to happen, I know from the likes of Sexto and Earlsy leaving, it kind of gets filled,” Doris said after today’s captains run at the Aviva Stadium.
“Of course you miss them, but the void gets filled by other people stepping up and the load being spread across the group a little bit more. I’m not sure how it’s going to work but there’s definitely a lot of trust in the other guys as well.”
Tomorrow’s game has storylines in abundance. Ollie Campbell presented the jerseys to the Ireland players last night ahead of a game marking the 150th anniversary year of the IRFU.
Cian Healy will become the most capped Irish player of all time when he comes off the bench for a record-breaking 134th cap.
“We were actually watching some of his highlights during the week from his debut against Australia funnily enough in Croke Park but some of his carries so explosive, stepping, skill-set and his longevity has been unbelievable,” Doris gushes about Healy.
“Like 134 caps is just wild and how many is that with Leinster as well? I think that’s in large part testament to how well he looks after himself. I had the pleasure of rooming with him in Ireland for about four years and he’s up to all sorts of tricks in terms of his recovery.
“Sometimes sleeping on the ground with his legs elevated, sleeping on acupressure mats, mindfulness and even all sorts of cold showers, loads of stretching and it’s stood to him in terms of his body and the ability to stay going at this age.
Ireland players including Caelan Doris, centre right, and Peter O’Mahony during the team photograph before an Ireland rugby captain’s run at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
“He’s very much his own man as well. People were saying during the week how he hasn’t changed a whole lot since when he first came in.
“He’s got his own unique and obscure hobbies and does his own thing off the pitch but, yeah, he’s true to himself which is a good thing.”
And, of course, there’s also the big storyline of Schmidt’s return to the Aviva Stadium as Wallabies head coach. Ireland have won four of the last five games with Australia with three of those wins coming during Schmidt’s time in charge.
Doris believes there are changes to the Irish game since Schmidt last coached the national side in 2019.
“In terms of Joe having insight, it’s probably evolved quite a bit. His stamp on the game within Ireland is definitely still there as well, the professionalism that he brought the game to, a lot of the habits and his focus on building the right habits is still there, but there’s been evolutions there as well I would say,” Doris added.
“We’re definitely aware what’s at stake. It’s a big game for us as well. We’ve the chance to go three from four and improve our performance.
“I think a lot lies on this weekend in terms of the success of the autumn for us and how that’s viewed in terms of how we get our performance right because last week was good, the first-half was good against Argentina, we weren’t where we needed to be against the All Blacks. If we can show the progression in our performance this week, I think there’s a lot on the line there.
“Through the Rugby Championship you definitely saw improvements through how [Australia] were playing from the start.
“Then in the autumn against England and Wales in particular they were very impressive, you can see they’re very passionate about their attack.
“You can see Joe’s stamp on the game in terms of their trick-plays and first two, three phases, coming up with different unique plays around that to break down defences so we’re going to have to be on high alert there.
“They’ve definitely improved a tonne this season and we’re ready for a big challenge.”
The Wallabies are looking for their third win of their northern hemisphere tour to add to their victories over England and Wales following their 27-13 loss to Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday.
The Australian players have sensed that this game is a big one for Schmidt.
“He’s been pretty excited for this week, hasn’t he, old Joe?” said James Slipper – who returns to the Wallabies front row for tomorrow’s game – about Schmidt.
“He’s got a great history here and loved the place, and so do we as players, we love playing here. We always find the fans really good.
“Joe is like a superstar here, wherever we go. The one thing I’ve noticed is he gets a lot of support. There’s a genuine love for the man in Ireland and it goes to show what sort of coach and what sort of person he is.
“We’re more looking at us off the back of the Scotland game. We felt we didn’t play a good game last week and felt we let ourselves down. Without looking too much into the Ireland gameplan, we had to fix our own backyard first. That’s been our priority this week.
“There have certainly been a few remarks throughout the week, which makes it interesting. Joe’s really excited and so are we.”
Wallabies full-back Tom Wright says it wasn’t a shock to them when Schmidt took over as their head coach earlier this year with one current Ireland player gave them a heads-up on the standards the New Zealander sets.
“I don’t think it was a shock. A lot of you guys are familiar with Mack Hansen, he might have tipped a couple of us Brumbies guys up to the style of coach that Joe was,” he said.
“But it was something that a lot of us were craving for and knew that it was going to be for the best of the team and to absolutely get the best out of the individuals too.
“He didn’t go full throttle at the start, I’ll be honest. He used to sort of apologise in advance if he might have chipped a guy here or there at training, but now he doesn’t apologise, you just know he’s absolutely keeping you accountable for the best of the team.”