Ireland captain Caelan Doris says improving the team’s discipline during the Six Nations “starts with me” as he admitted he must set a better example for the squad.
Andy Farrell’s side’s discipline has been a key talking point in the build-up to Thursday night’s opener against France in Paris (20:10 GMT) after a chastening loss to South Africa in November which yielded four yellow cards and a red.
As they bid to reclaim the Six Nations title from France, Doris says discipline has been “right up there” in Irish minds during their pre-tournament preparations.
“It’s one of the key points we’ve talked about since coming into camp especially off the back of November where it wasn’t good enough,” said Doris.
“I would’ve 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 and the more senior players.”
Speaking after leading Ireland’s captain’s run at Stade de France, Doris added: “Across the board it’s very important, especially with the way the game’s going.
“There are more cards these days. They’re harder on offsides, breakdown and they want to favour the attacking team, so smart decision-making there and being really clinical and disciplined is going to be very important.
Injury-hit Ireland, who lost 42-27 to France in Dublin last year, are underdogs for Thursday’s game, like they were in 2024 when they travelled to Marseille and won 38-17.
But 27-year-old Doris says he is not taking too much inspiration from what happened two years ago.
“The internal view and perception is that there’s still a lot of belief at the core. That’s grown over the last 10 days,” he said.
“We’ve created evidence for more confidence and belief based on how we’ve shown up on the field and also connections built off it and work being done off it as well.
“There’s a pretty positive feeling based on how we’ve trained and how the lads have shown up and integrated.”