Caelan Doris is confident he will continue to grow into the role of Ireland captain after ending a challenging month with a 22-19 comeback win over Australia.
Doris was appointed to the position by head coach Andy Farrell ahead of the Autumn Nations Series and has been touted as a potential British and Irish Lions skipper for next summer’s three-Test tour against the Wallabies.
The 26-year-old claimed the second of Ireland’s three tries and was named man of the match on Saturday as the hosts scraped success over Joe Schmidt’s side to add to victories over Argentina and Fiji following a dispiriting defeat to New Zealand at the start of November.
“From an individual point of view, the more opportunities you get to do it, the more comfortable you become with the extra responsibilities,” said Doris.
“I feel that there has been some growth there in the last number of weeks. I’m sure if I get to do it again, I’ll continue to grow. I’m confident in that.”
Ireland trailed for most of an engrossing encounter with the Wallabies before Gus McCarthy’s 73rd-minute try set them on course for victory in Andy Farrell’s final match before his Lions sabbatical.
Doris added to a first-half score from Josh van der Flier, while fly-halves Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley contributed five and two points respectively as the home team overturned a 13-5 half-time deficit at the Aviva Stadium.
“I think there’s been growth from the first week”
World player of the year nominee Doris, who replaced Peter O’Mahony as captain and appears to be the long-term successor to the retired Johnny Sexton, feels Ireland can regard an inconsistent autumn as a success.
“I think so, I think there’s been growth from the first week,” said Doris, who deputised for O’Mahony as skipper during wins over Italy and South Africa earlier this year.
“The message initially was that we need see improvement, we need to keep evolving. Other teams are getting better, we need to as well.
“That’s been the message throughout.
“You’ve seen it in the results, probably saw it in the first half against Argentina, saw it last week (against Fiji) and against a better side (on Saturday), we saw it in parts, definitely not in full.”
Defence coach Simon Easterby will lead Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations title defence and a subsequent summer tour in 2025.
Doris has little concern about the transition during Farrell’s temporary absence.
“(I) definitely have a lot of faith in the other coaches,” he said. “Faz (Farrell) 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 (Sexton) and Earlsy (Keith Earls) leaving, it kind of gets filled.
“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.”
Farrell hailed “nerves of steel” from rookie hooker McCarthy and praised the overall impact of his bench following his send-off success.
McCarthy, 21, touched down for the second consecutive week after claiming a try on his debut in the 52-17 victory over Fiji.
“I thought Gus was excellent again,” said Farrell.
“I mean, he had nerves of steel. A young kid coming on in that type of pressurised situation when things weren’t smooth in the lineout at times, but when he came on he nailed everything, and to score the try as well…
“There’s a little bit of you’ve nothing to lose when you’re behind and the performance isn’t as good as it should be.
“But they (the replacements) didn’t just try to fit in, they tried to add in many departments but mainly with the energy and the grunt, so I was delighted with the bench.”
