Ireland Remain In Title Hunt As Doris Targets Strong Finish Against Scotland

Caelan Doris says Ireland are determined to finish off the Guinness Men’s Six Nations on a high, as they target ‘the best performance of the campaign’ at home to Scotland next Saturday (kick-off 2.10pm).

The Championship’s mouth-watering ‘Super Saturday’ final round will begin at a packed-out Aviva Stadium, where Andy Farrell’s men had to dig deep last night to hold off a stern challenge from a Wales team showing early signs of revival.

With France’s Grand Slam hopes dashed today by their 50-40 defeat in Edinburgh, it is a three-horse race heading into the final day. Les Bleus are still top of the table, level on 16 points with Scotland, and Ireland occupy third place with 14 points.

It makes for a hugely exciting conclusion to the tournament, which will close out with ‘Le Crunch’ between France and England in Paris. France are bidding for back-to-back titles, Ireland were champions in 2023 and 2024, while Scotland were last winners in the Five Nations era in 1999.

While no doubt delighted to still be in the running for both the Championship and the Triple Crown, Doris spoke after the 27-17 victory over Wales about how motivated they will be to perform at the optimum level against the high-flying Scots.

“Plenty to work on. We want to finish off strong with a good performance back here against Scotland. It’s a week that we haven’t typically done our best in, so there’s going to be a lot of motivation to get it right next week,” said the Ireland captain.

“We will be targeting our best performance in the final week. We’ve definitely some good stuff to build on – some of the scrum stuff has been a lot better than it has been over the last three games.

“We wanted to build on Twickenham, and we did that in some areas. We were firing shots. Even when we didn’t convert earlier on, we were playing some good attacking rugby.”

As well as his captaincy role, Doris was a leader by actions again for the men in green. His 13 carries had him just behind player-of-the-match Jack Conan (15) and James Ryan (14), while he was the team’s joint-top tackler with 17 tackles from as many attempts, level with Rónan Kelleher.

As they had done against both Italy and England, Ireland were first on the scoreboard against Wales with an opening quarter try. It was even quicker than previous weeks, with Jacob Stockdale crossing after just five minutes for what was his first international try since the summer of 2021.

Conan thought he had doubled Ireland’s lead on the 10-minute mark, but a knock-on by Tom O’Toole saw the score ruled out. Doris felt that if they had pushed into double figures at that early stage, the match might have panned out quite differently but Wales proved sticky opponents.

“It was pretty scrappy, to be honest with you,” admitted the Ballina-born number 8. “Capitalised on one try early on, but there were a few that we didn’t take, and that’s the difference with today and a couple of weeks ago (against England).

“We didn’t take those early opportunities, get the scoreboard pressure, and the game takes a different narrative as a result.

“Wales are obviously a hungry team and they showed plenty of good stuff, how they fought in the first half, and towards the end in the second half. They hit very hard. But definitely a lot for us to improve on for the final weekend.

“It’s about continuing to evolve as a team. We know the path that we’re on. We know that we need growth, week on week, and we’re hopefully moving in the right direction.”

Doris is well used to playing in the back row alongside Conan, with the pair being Leinster centurions and established internationals. The Bray man produced a big display against the Welsh side. Apart from his try, he won an important first-half penalty at the breakdown, and was involved in the build-up to the bonus point score.

Ireland ended the penultimate round clash with replacement scrum half Nathan Doak, who made his international debut, and fellow Six Nations newcomers Tom Stewart and Tom Farrell on the field. It took a full squad effort to get over the finish line, as Wales fought right until the bitter end.

As well as speaking about how important Conan’s contribution was, the Ireland skipper singled out try-scoring winger Stockdale, who also supplied the assist for Jamie Osborne’s bonus point effort, and Nick Timoney, who worked hard at the breakdown and in the tackle area on his first Six Nations start.

“Jack is an unbelievable ball carrier. I think that’s probably his main strength. That’s something I’ve always seen, even going back to when I was an Academy player, I admired a lot of his ball-playing ability, his carrying. You saw that in spades today. I thought he was great.

“His handling for that second drive, yeah. Scooped that one up. I thought he was very good today. When he gets his hands on the ball, he always makes something happen for us.

“Jacob on the left wing, I thought he was very good. Ciarán Frawley off the bench again. Nick Timoney’s been incredibly impactful off the bench, and he showed some very good stuff again today

“There’s some good depth in there now, and good competition. Yeah, we’re pushing ourselves in the right direction.”

Another eye-catching performer was Ulster tighthead O’Toole, who showed his versatility in starting in place of the injured Jeremy Loughman (calf) at loosehead. He made his mark with two scrum penalties, getting the better of Tomas Francis, and combined with Kelleher for a well-executed choke tackle.

While failing to reach the heights of their record-breaking display against England, Doris felt there were improvements in ‘some areas’, noting: “The scrum performed better today. I think our attack created quite a few chances for us, but as I said, we didn’t capitalise on them early on.

“But I think you’re never trying to recreate a game. It was a different story two weeks ago. Next week it’s going to be a different story again. So, you’re just trying to be present and playing what’s in front of you, and we did that well at times today.”