Stade de France Ireland captain Caelan Doris has declared good discipline starts with him ahead of Thursday’s Guinness Six Nations opener with defending champions France in Paris.
Doris also endorsed fly-half Sam Prendergast’s ability to bring his A game to Stade de France while backing his sky-high potential.
The Irish skipper and No.8 was talking to media following Wednesday’s captain’s run training session at the stadium in Saint-Denis, an arena that will be packed to the rafters on Thursday night as 2026 championship gets under way with France led by a fit-again Antoine Dupont, the Toulouse scrum-half recognised as the best player in the world.
Doris also spoke about the difficulties of defending against Dupont but his main focus was on the importance of Ireland’s discipline. His team’s last match of 2025 had been a comprehensive beating by South Africa in Dublin which belied the 24-13 scoreline, and when Ireland’s cause was dented by a 20-minute red card for lock James Ryan and four yellow cards. The penalty count also rose across to 18 against the world champions and the captain on Wednesday said discipline was top of the priority list of improvements needed.
“It’s one of the key points that we’ve talked about since coming into camp, especially off the back of November where it wasn’t good enough. I would have had chats with the coaches post November around me as captain, needing to lead it better. I gave away too many penalties in November.
“So it starts with me. It starts with the more senior players, but yeah, across the board, it’s very important, especially with the way the game’s going. I think refs, like there’s more cards these days. They’re hotter on offsides, breakdown. They want to favour the attacking team.
“So yeah, smart decision making there and being really clinical and disciplined is going to be very important.”
Doris said he was excited to see fly-half Prendergast make the most of his first appearance at Stade de France. The 22-year-old was selected ahead of Jack Crowley, who starts on the bench and Leinster rival Harry Byrne and Doris said: “There’s great competition amongst the 10s, which is what we need.
“They’re all relatively young and have good heads on them and are driving each other in the right direction, which is great for the group.
“Sam’s doing great. Obviously, his defence has caught quite a bit of flak, but it’s an area that, like I’m in the same club as him in Leinster and I see day-to-day the work he puts in. Same here in camp. So that side of his game is improving.
“In terms of his attack, the ceiling is so high for him. He can do things that not many people can do at all. And he’s getting more and more confident at leading the week and being another voice, especially guiding our attack. So, yeah, I’ve got a lot of faith in him and I’m looking forward to seeing him lead us around tomorrow.”
Ireland supporters will not be excited to see French skipper Dupont back in a blue jersey, however. The former World Rugby Men’s Player of the Year sustained a serious cruciate knee ligament injury against Ireland in Dublin 11 months ago and Doris recalled how difficult an opponent he is to defend against.
“He’s done me several times. I can think of one particular incident in 2023 where I feel I have him coming off one side of the breakdown and then he twirls and goes around me and beats three defenders the other side.
“I’ve described him before as one of those little fish you try and touch and they dart away from you, and it’s true. You’ve got to be connected. You’ve got to stay on him in multiple people; you can’t kind of make the decision for him by coming out of system and thinking, ‘oh here’s the best player in the world, I need to go and get him and prove a point’.
“You’ve got to stay connected. He’s a big threat, he’s the heartbeat to their attack and it’s going to be a big challenge for us.”
Ireland are underdogs against the French but the captain spoke of his belief in his team’s potential to get a positive result on Thursday night.
“I’m massively excited about the game tomorrow. We’ve had a really good week in Portugal, prepped well. There’s a good appetite, even today coming out here there’s good excitement, being in the stadium and seeing it and knowing what it’s going to be like tomorrow. I think we’ve trained well. I think we’re in a good spot.”
