The second weekend of May, 2018 is less remembered for the loss by Leinster A in the final of the Celtic Cup in Vallis Way, and more for what was going on with their senior team in Northern Spain. But Caelan Doris remembers both events pretty well.
Where is Vallis Way? Home of Ealing Trailfinders of course. Doris was on the bench for Leinster’s second stringers that sodden Saturday when the West Londoners got what, for them, was a landmark win.
Afterwards the visitors coped with their defeat by tuning in to their senior team’s Heineken Champions Cup final against Racing in Bilbao. Then they hopped on a flight home to get into the swing of that celebration, where the win for Leinster gave the province their fourth star on the jersey.
The following year Doris was a bit closer to the action. Not close enough to be 24th man for the losing European final against Saracens in Newcastle, but a part of the travelling party nonetheless. As a young professional with ambitions you couldn’t miss what it means to be a part of this operation. He was on the right track, and is well placed now to judge where Leinster are at in their drive for five.
“Yeah, I think there’s a lot of belief, a lot of trust amongst the squad both in each other, in what we’re doing and how we’re training,” he says. “There’s also a lot of hurt from the last couple of seasons. There’s always big motivation when it comes to Europe. It’s the pinnacle of club rugby, and I think there’s a bit of feeling of ‘if not now, then when?’
“It feels like a lot of things are going right at the minute. Obviously La Rochelle are a quality team and are going to be extremely tough, but it’s going to be a big week leading into it. Big preparation.”
We can’t be sure if Doris was the first player to talk openly and comfortably about the importance of mindfulness as a moving part in rugby’s engine, but if not then he’s one of the pioneers. When Leinster were stitching the first star on the shirt, back in 2009, he was still in primary school in north Mayo. Mindfulness back then was a long way from mainstream.
For some now it has its own place in the kitbag. So when Doris talks about “big preparation” what has been described by Ronald Purser, author of the book McMindfulness, as “a hybrid of science and meditative discipline,” is part of his routine.
“There’s still a weekly block in here,” he says. “I suppose the thing with mindfulness is you need to be consistent at it and practise it daily. I know a lot of lads do practise it daily by themselves, individually, whether it be at the start of the day or before bed, but the big thing is the ability to stay in the moment, not to be thinking about the future or dwelling on a mistake or something positive in the past which is definitely a huge part of sports.
“Being present and being in the moment is kind of the key to playing well really, and is the key to getting into a flow or flow state as well, which is when things happen.”
We wonder then if it’s a useful tool in a game that’s more blocked than flowing. For example, the La Rochelle we saw against Racing last weekend will not be a close relation of the one that fetches up in Stade Velodrome on Saturday. Where the first was brawny but ultimately barmy, with the number of crazy offloads thrown, giving their opponents an open door to the game, surely Ronan O’Gara will be telling his lads stories all week of the beauty to be found in stop-start. Reared on percentage plays feeding a powerful pack, this is a script O’Gara knows off by heart. So is Doris bracing himself for the pragmatist’s version of a good day in Marseille?
“Yeah, we’re hoping that won’t be the case and we’re going to try and do what we can to keep the tempo high, and play how we want to play, but there’s obviously two teams involved so we’ve got to prepare for all scenarios. We expect them to probably try and slow the ball down and maybe make it more of an up-front battle, and nullify some of our threats and some of that passing game and expansive game that we showed at the weekend. So yeah, we’ll have to prepare for that as well.”
La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara. Photo: David Rogers/Getty
Clearly Toulouse was a brutal encounter last Saturday but they too got over-involved with the way Leinster wanted to play when they might have explored how best to frustrate their hosts. Even so, away from the set-piece, in the battles around the park, Leinster’s physical dominance laid down a marker.
“Yeah, I hope so,” Doris says. “Obviously you can’t get too much bigger than the likes of [Emmanuel] Meafou and [Rory] Arnold, who we saw at the weekend and I think we dealt with them pretty well. Some of the work that Denis Leamy has done around our tackle technique, our two-man tackles, has definitely contributed to that. But yeah, it’s going to be another huge challenge. Ronan O’Gara knows us pretty well so I’m sure he’ll be coming up with a good plan to stop us but hopefully we’ve improved since last year in terms of stopping the big fellas.
“I remember watching it (last season’s defeat by La Rochelle) with a few of the other injured players — just a real frustration. There was a lot of reflection after that week. Like I said, tackle tech was a big focus that came out of it — the ability to stop these big power teams with bigger guys than us, preparing, not letting your previous game be your best game. We’ve seen that a bit where the semi has been the best. You look at England in the World Cup, or potentially us last season in the quarter against Exeter, so preparing for each game as your biggest game, and each game is your final. We’re fortunate that this is our final now and there’s obviously massive motivation, making sure it’s our best performance and we haven’t peaked too early.”
Leamy will be given plenty of time this week to do his thing. Given the times we live in that mostly will be modified physically, with walk-throughs and technique chosen over boning the ball-carrier. Doris has had enough concussion issues to value the importance of loading the full-on physical attack into the game itself rather than the week leading up to it. There was a period in his career when you wondered if it would ever reach its current height.
That his concussions were being caused by glancing blows rather than full-force trauma was a worry in itself. It’s unclear how much, if any, role in his rude health has been down to the headgear he wears. Either way he looks and sounds like a player whose head problems are in the past. Which leaves him free to focus on the prize on offer in Marseille. So when Johnny Sexton spoke last weekend about the lads on board who were mad keen to make their own history, it was the likes of Doris he had in mind.
“It would be unbelievable,” the back-rower says. “We talk a lot about driving the legacy together and that for me means a combination of the past, the present and the future of the club and recognising how the previous successes the club was built on and how it went through a tough patch and those successes inspired a lot of this group to be where they are today.
“We have the opportunity to inspire the next generation through our successes, so in a way I feel like the legacy is in our hands and we have an opportunity to inspire them. So there’s that level of it, but then there’s also just the pure enjoyment and the thrill and delight at winning a final. It’s definitely something I want to do with this group. It’s a special group, pretty tight-knit, a lot of close friends within it. It would be amazing to do.”
This time he will be suited and booted, present and correct. Not watching from a club bar in West London, not watching from the stands in the stadium with the lads who are already enjoying a wind down. This time he will be one of those leading the charge.
