World-class Ireland star effectively rules himself out of Six Nations captaincy

Andy Farrell’s options for the Ireland captaincy has seemingly been cut by one after Caelan Doris stated that he was too inexperienced for the role.

The number eight’s name has been bandied about alongside the likes of James Ryan, Peter O’Mahony, Garry Ringrose and Dan Sheehan.

Doris has also received backing from former Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman, who thought he could be a ‘dark horse’ for the leadership responsibility.

The outstanding back-row disagrees with Jackman, however, and believes that Farrell has players more suited to the position at the moment.

Down the pecking order

“It would obviously be a massive honour but, to be honest, I think there’s quite a few ahead of me in the pecking order,” he said.

“Myself and Hugo (Keenan) have been in the leadership group for the last couple of years and it’s been a good learning curve and I’m eager to continue to add more and develop my leadership more.

“But there’s guys there ahead of me I think would do a great job.”

Doris has not had too much experience of being a captain but did take on the responsibility during Leinster’s United Rugby Championship defeat to Ulster.

“It was an interesting one because it wasn’t for the whole week,” he said.

“James Ryan was due to play and later on in the week (he pulled out). He’d done a lot of heavy lifting early on, but it was an honour for me, definitely; it had been quite a few years since I was captain.

“I also got a sense of appreciation for the work that those lads do because there are quite a few extra responsibilities on you over the captain’s run day and the day of the game, just little things that you mightn’t think of.

“You’re dealing with the ref obviously a little bit during the game, communication in huddles, making sure everyone is on top of little bits, you are less focused on your game, you’re kind of taking a wider perspective.”

What Doris learnt

Leinster succumbed to an extremely rare home defeat in that interpro game, with Ulster going back to Belfast with a stunning 22-21 victory at the RDS Arena.

And Doris admits that he has plenty to learn, especially with the way that he dealt with referee Frank Murphy during the contest.

“I was probably initially eager to talk to Frank after both of their tries because I thought there was a knock-on on one and a potential ahead of kicking,” he added.

“But I was wrong on both and I annoyed him a little bit by doing that and struggled a little bit from there. A bit of a learning curve.

“It was disappointing, the result, but it was a pretty cool thing to do.”

READ MORE: Brian O’Driscoll makes bold call over Andy Farrell’s Ireland future