Caelan Doris believes his Ireland cannot carry any passengers when they face Italy in Dublin on Saturday as the captain looks for a positive reaction to the Guinness Six Nations opening-round hammering by France nine days earlier.
Head coach Andy Farrell has made six changes to the team which started in Paris last Thursday week and conceded 29 points without reply in the first 46 minutes at Stade de France on the way to a 36-14 humbling by the defending champions.
There are championship debuts for right wing Rob Baloucoune and blindside flanker Cormac Izuchukwu and a potential debut off the bench for lock Edwin Edogbo while Doris has been switched from No.8 to openside flanker to accommodate Jack Conan in a new-look back row.
The objective in Farrell’s eyes is to restore the grunt and intent that was missing as a ruthless French side exploited Irish passivity to take a 22-0 half-time lead but the captain warned it would take a collective, cohesive effort and that meant those new faces in the matchday 23 needed to back themselves to contribute positively to Ireland’s cause against the in-form Italians.
“It’s an exciting team we’ve got tomorrow,” Doris said on Friday following the captain’s run training session at Aviva Stadium. “There’s obviously a few changes, so getting cohesion through the week has been important. And the message to those guys is to trust themselves.
“Same with all of us really off the back of a defeat like that on Thursday, doubling down on what we’re good at doing things properly with intent, enjoying it and enjoying it from doing things properly with intent as well.
“Creating a feeling through how we show up with actions and it can be infectious that but also to the new guys it’s making sure they own it and make it feel like it’s properly theirs.
“You can’t have any passengers tomorrow, so, yeah, full ownership from everyone.”
Doris has been impressed by Edogbo’s impact since the 23-year-old powerhouse arrived into the Ireland camp ahead of the pre-championship training week in Portugal and was reminded of his physicality during a showreel of the Cobh Pirates product’s on-field impacts which was shown at the Ireland team’s jersey presentation ceremony on Thursday night, also attended by the debutant’s mother and three siblings.
“He’s been class. I’ve faced him in a few interpros, and he’s unbelievably physical, but he’s got a very good understanding of the game as well.
“We saw some of his clips yesterday, his family were in and there was a highlight reel for him and some of his involvements in Munster have been unbelievable, especially around the breakdown actually. He’s very capable there of turnovers.
“So yeah, I’m excited to see him getting his hands on the ball tomorrow, he’s got a very good way of beating defenders both through his size, but footwork and agility as well. So yeah, I’m excited for him.” Doris said “intent” had been the squad’s word of the week following Farrell’s stinging post-match criticism of his players at Stade de France.
“I think there’s probably a little bit of a feeling of not wanting to make a mistake as opposed to going out to get it right and properly set down a marker last week.
“So it has been the word of the week and we’re hoping to see that tomorrow.
“There’s been several chats throughout the week, The big thing has been about holding each other more accountable as a leadership group, as a wider group… all of us taking full ownership and driving things in the right direction.
“We’ve kind of spoken a little bit about last week being a reference point that we will hopefully look back on from, a place of improvement over the next this week, but also going forward as well.
“There’s a realisation that we do need to improve, but there is still belief in what we’re doing, and just the need to do things properly.”
