-
Tom Hamilton, Senior Writer
DUBLIN, Ireland — Ireland’s new captain Caelan Doris doesn’t waste words. As the all-court No.8 prepares to lead them into Friday’s match against New Zealand, he won’t weigh his team down with a soul-stirring speech, or endless buzzwords. Instead, when asked to describe his own leadership style, he kept his self-assessment short, and to the point: “probably actions first,” he said.
It could be the start of a remarkable eight months or so for Doris, having already experienced an astonishing 2024. He first captained Leinster on New Year’s Day in their match against Ulster, taking over from co-captains James Ryan and Garry Ringrose. Since then, he’s skippered Ireland twice, taken over sole captaincy of Leinster and been appointed Ireland men’s captain. And all this in a British & Irish Lions year where one of his biggest fans Andy Farrell will lead the tourists to Australia.
You could forgive him if he had half an eye on what lies ahead, but it’s not his way. “Yeah, I’m not looking there at all to be honest,” he said. “I’m not reading into any of that. I’m very much trying to take it week by week and focus on myself and my evolution without thinking too far ahead. Thanks.” That’s the reasoning of a man who is incredibly gifted at rugby but has a degree in psychology too; there’s no danger of irrationality here.
But it’s hard to ignore the significance of Friday night and Doris, 26, leading out Ireland. The captaincy has passed through the hands of Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell, Rory Best, Johnny Sexton and Peter O’Mahony through to Doris. He still has a few of those reference points nearby: O’Mahony is with the Ireland squad, Sexton has been in and around the team while O’Connell is on the coaching staff. So there’s plenty of leadership acumen to pick up hints and tips from.
But Doris — the youngest anointed captain since O’Driscoll — is intent on doing this his own way. Ireland head coach Farrell talked through Doris’ leadership qualities on Wednesday. “He’s unbelievably diligent in getting his own stuff right,” Farrell said. ‘He’s professional and come on leaps and bounds over the past four years. He’s comfortable in his own skin.”
Farrell added: “He’s like a sponge, learning from the leaders he’s had the pleasure to sit alongside in his international career.
“He’s taken it all in. He’s calm, he’s not panicking, he’s taking it all in his stride. That puts everyone else at ease. He’s very comfortable at allowing others to lead at the same time. On top of that, he’s not in bad form, is he?”
Doris became Ireland’s 110th captain when he skippered a much-changed side against Italy in the Six Nations in February. “Over the years, his story from his first cap to where he is now as a leader and a professional has been astonishing really behind the scenes,” Farrell said of Doris ahead of that Test. “He’s someone who is unbelievably professional, very diligent in his own preparation, so therefore because he’s so comfortable in his own skin … He’s very calm, calculated type of individual that will have that reassurance on the rest of the group.”
On their summer tour in South Africa, he took over the honour from O’Mahony when the Munster flanker was replaced in their first Test 27-20 defeat in Pretoria. A week later, with O’Mahony benched, Doris led out Ireland as they beat the Boks 25-24 thanks to Ciaran Frawley’s last-gasp drop-goal. Afterwards, once the exhilaration had abated, he assessed the experience of captaincy, and admitted he had a dab of imposter syndrome.
“Probably on the first couple of times I was doing it, I was quite stressed or thinking forward to, ‘what do I have to do here?, what will I say here?'” Doris said earlier this season. “I think with time, the focus is on getting my own stuff right, plus a feel for what needs to be done for the team. It’s an important balance to get right.”
There were other slight tweaks needed too. The Irish management saw Doris get short shrift from referee Luke Pearce in that Pretoria defeat. There’s previous here too, with Doris having issues with referee Frank Murphy back when he captained Leinster for the first time. Still, Farrell stuck by Doris, the first player he capped as Ireland coach when he took charge in 2020. “He is still in that infancy as far as trying to get some more leadership experience, which is why he’s got this opportunity,” Farrell said of Doris in South Africa. “He’ll continue to have respect for himself, as a captain, as a leader, but also in the eyes of the referees as well.”
Those outside the Ireland bubble have taken notice. Warren Gatland, the Wales coach and leader of the Lions on three occasions, describes Doris as a “master of the dark arts”. Gatland added in his column for The Telegraph: “He does get away with a little bit — a hand here or a foot there — and I think to myself ‘good on you'”. Eddie Jones, over in Japan, told ESPN that Doris is “solid, hardworking” and in the Kieran Read mould. Bernard Jackman, the ex-Ireland hooker, says Doris is “very relaxed and likeable character and I would expect that he will be able to build a healthy working relationship with match officials quite quickly which is a great starting point for any captain”.
The man himself is understated, instead he likes to lead from the front, putting in performances like the one he contributed to Leinster in their 26-12 win over Munster in front of 80,468 crowd at Croke Park where he made 21 carries and tackles, the most out of any player in that fourth round of the United Rugby Championship.
Which leads us to Friday where he will join a select group of Irish greats who have led out their team against the All Blacks. For so long New Zealand had a stranglehold over Ireland, never losing a match in 111 years. Then came that memorable day in the Chicago sunshine in 2016 as Ireland won 40-29 to end that hoodoo. Since then, it’s become second nature — Ireland winning five of their last nine encounters.
But still, with recency bias, their last meeting is the one that stings and reverberates still within this group. That heartbreak came in the quarterfinal of last year’s World Cup, where the All Blacks defeated Ireland 28-24, bringing a premature end to a competition for a team many fancied to win the whole thing. Doris took time to get over that, frequently mentioning in the interim year the pain that defeat caused. “[There are a few] days of deep, dark pits, and feeling ‘how can you go back to this?’ almost, and just proper hurt, blaming yourself, all sorts of different negative thoughts,” Doris said in March.
But you feel he is ready to turn the page against the All Blacks on Friday. “I think every time we play them there’s a good rivalry, there’s mutual respect, there’s two good top sides going against each other,” Doris said. “And [this game] will be no different I think.”
He’s aware of the threats New Zealand pose, with Ardie Savea, Wallace Sititi and Sam Cane all lining up against Ireland in the back-row, but this is a group who will be targeting four from four this autumn. Doris says he wants a “performance”, but the expectation is Ireland expect to beat New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia across four glorious weekends in Dublin.
When he walks out in D4 on Friday, Doris will think of those who have contributed to his career. The son of psychotherapists, his rugby career has taken him from Lacken in Co. Mayo, to Blackrock College in Dublin, to Leinster and all the way through to Ireland captaincy. He’ll soak in the songs, face up to the haka, and then he’ll do what comes naturally, without overthinking things. He’s taught himself to trust his instincts and, as he puts it, find his own way. And that’s exactly why Farrell has turned to Doris to lead Ireland (and maybe the Lions?) into this next era.
“I wouldn’t quite say second nature but definitely getting more comfortable in it and starting to enjoy it more. The temptation [with captaincy] can be [to think] “he did this that way, I’m going to have to copy that” but as you get more comfortable in the role you can do things your own way a little bit more and find your own way a little bit,” Doris said. “I’m still in the process of doing that but enjoying it.”