‘Rassie was trying to let it bother us’ – Caelan Doris’ verdict on Springboks mind games

Ireland number eight Caelan Doris has praised head coach Andy Farrell for the way he dealt with the psychological warfare waged by the Springboks during their recent series in South Africa.

South Africa and Ireland, who are the two leading sides in World Rugby’s official rankings, faced off in thrilling encounters at Loftus Versfeld and Kings Park last month.

There was plenty of hype in the build-up to the series and Doris admitted that it was difficult to ignore the comments from the world champions’ camp with their head coach, Rassie Erasmus, leading the way.

Rassie Erasmus’ mind games

The Boks mentor tried his best to unnerve the men from the Emerald Isle by posting what he thought would be his opponents’ starting line-up on social media and followed it up with further comments at pre-match press conferences.

To his credit, Farrell did not take the bait and said: “it’s hilarious! It’s brilliant,” when queried about Erasmus’ use of social media ahead of the series.

The series was eventually drawn with the Boks notching a 27-20 win in Pretoria before Ireland sealed a stunning 25-24 victory in Durban thanks to two late drop goals from Ciaran Frawley.

And Doris praised Farrell’s manner of dealing with the comments coming from their opponents’ camp, allowing Ireland to only focus on the job at hand.

“Generally, lads don’t really look externally in terms of reading stuff, or looking at what other teams are saying,” the 26-year-old told the Irish Independent.

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“Sometimes you might not be able to avoid it through Whatsapp or social media, but generally I think the lads try to avoid it, keep things internal and listen to our messages.

“Given how much of it (noise) there was, I think lads were aware that it was there. But generally, he (Erasmus) was probably trying to initiate the narrative, trying to let it bother us, or let us get into a bit of a back and forth.

“The way Faz (Farrell) dealt with it was definitely the best way to go about it.”

Doris also gave a fascinating insight into the two encounters which were played in front of sold out crowds against opponents who were highly motivated.

‘Always extremely physical’

“We have had some great Tests against them,” he said. “When you are playing against South Africa it’s always extremely physical and you know you need to match, or go beyond them physically, if you want to win the game.

“They are very set-piece oriented in terms of their scrum and maul, you have to deal with their ball carriers coming around the corner and running really hard and direct.

“They have big men so they hit hard too, so from our view in attack you have to be nailed on in terms of your shape and having multiple options off the line to try and create a little bit of doubt so they can’t just run up and whack you.

“It’s always a challenge. There is good respect amongst both teams for each other, from the games and how tight they have been.”

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