Caelan Doris has spoken openly of the "weird and uncertain period" he endured early last year due to the concussion issues which stalled his burgeoning career, but on the eve of the 2022 Six Nations the 23-year-old says he is in a way better place and loving his rugby again.
Just over a year ago Doris had looked primed for a huge Six Nations campaign and was high in Warren Gatland’s thoughts for the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa, whereupon his tournament was ended before it had even begun after concussion issues resurfaced in a Leinster training game against Ulster.
Doris was only four minutes into his Test debut, against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium on the opening weekend of the Six Nations two years ago, when he suffered a concussion, as had been the case in his European debut for Leinster against Treviso the previous November.
So when milder symptoms arose again early last year, Doris visited a specialist in London and erred on the side of caution through the graduated return-to-play protocols.
By the time he returned in May the Lions ship had sailed, but last November he was back to his best. Ireland's player of the autumn series of games, he played every minute, was man-of-the-match in the win over the All Blacks, scored a try reminiscent of Jamie Heaslip in his pomp, and also scored in Ireland's win over Argentina.
“I’m loving playing at the minute, both in Leinster and in here; two top-class environments, great coaches and players and it’s really enjoyable,” he said from Ireland’s training base in the Algarve on Tuesday.
“From having missed the Six Nations last year, I’m pretty excited to be hopefully a part of it this year and hopefully getting stuck in this weekend.”
Doris went through a battery of cognitive tests early last year, including brain scans before returning to rugby, and now says: “I’m in a way better place than this time last year, I’m much more comfortable with it all. I’ve had a pretty clean season so far this year and yeah, hopefully that will continue. Touch wood.”
Touch wood indeed.
“Having those tests definitely helps with that. It gives me peace of mind. It’s still sometimes there but no, it’s much less than it was last year.”
Despite Wales inflicting their share of woe on Irish teams in the Six Nations – last season’s opener in Cardiff being a case in point – with a lower injury toll and a run of eight successive wins, Ireland are warm favourites this week.
“We’re confident but we’re not going to be complacent,” said Doris. “We’re happy with how November went obviously, three wins, we’re happy with that and with how we’re evolving.
“So far this week has been very much on ourselves, on getting our own stuff in order obviously having been back with our clubs for the last couple of months.
“All being on the same page for the last few days has been important. So we’re confident, we’ve trained well the last few days, but of course we can’t let any complacency slip in and we know that Wales are a very good team. They had a pretty successful November as well and have been dangerous over the last few years.”
Doris also firmly believes that this Irish team still has potential for further growth.
“The understanding of the game plan is huge for us. I think that’s probably where we evolved most from the Six Nations last year to November, the sort of connections and understanding when we might be playing out the back of a shape, being ready and prepared for that.
“I think we’ve come on from a fair bit in that but it’s still an evolving process and we still need to get better at reading each other’s cues and being ready to play front door and back door.
“And in terms of how we’re going to continue to grow, probably our defence was inconsistent. It was good at times, definitely. We talk about being brave and even when the picture is imperfect and we might be numbers down, we’re still wanting to show good pictures in terms of our line speed and getting off the line.
“So there’s lots of micro-detail around both attack and ‘D’ and we’ll be looking to keep evolving.”
Doris cut his teeth with the Irish under-20s at number eight, where he was the team's standout player. Of his 11 starts in 12 caps for Ireland, he has started five at blindside and six at number eight. With Jack Conan continuing his Lions form at eight, Doris played at blindside in the wins over Japan and the All Blacks, before Conan's injury saw him revert seamlessly to eight.
It’s likely that Doris will start on the blindside against Wales, and accommodating both ball-carriers has been honed by both Leinster and Ireland.
“They are probably merging more over the last year or so,” Doris said of the two roles. “We’re sharing some of the workload around the lineout and being a strike runner out the back of lineouts.
“Through November and back at Leinster as well, Jack and myself have been sharing that role a little bit more. He’s been doing it around scrum-time and restarts and stuff like that, but I’m enjoying having a mix with it, and I think he is too. We’re working well together.”
Nothing has excited the players from all the participating teams more than the return of supporters to the tournament for the first time since the 2020 tournament was abandoned at around the half-way point and thereafter played out in empty stadiums.
That was another massive benefit in November, having full crowds back, particularly looking back at the New Zealand game comes to mind. “The atmosphere there was incredible,” says Doris. “So three home games and hopefully they’ll all be full crowds as well. We’re looking forward to that lift that the crowd gives us as well.”
