Ireland 27-22 England: Irish showed what we're capable of, says captain Caelan Doris
2025-02-02
Category: sports

Captain Caelan Doris said Ireland "showed what we are capable of" as they started their quest for a third straight Six Nations title with a bonus-point win over England. England led 10-5 at the break but tries from Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan in a dominant second-half display sealed a 27-22 victory for the holders."It is definitely satisfying," said Leinster back row Doris."Momentum is huge in this competition. You can't win it in the first round, but you can lose it essentially or dampen your chances."I think we showed what we are capable of at times. It was a good 10 days leading up to this and there is a strong belief in the plan we have within our attack."As we get deeper into the tournament, it's going to be something we need to get stronger with and we need to develop."Ireland were edged out by England in a Twickenham thriller last year and Steve Borthwick's side threatened to stage an upset in Dublin following a hugely energetic first-half display. But Doris insists Ireland's belief that they would "break" England never waned."We needed to get back to doing things our way," added 26-year-old Doris, who earned his 48th cap in Saturday's win. "A feeling at the end of the first half that we thought we were going to break them - and when we were getting into their 22 and score zone, things were going to happen for us."
In his first match as interim head coach, Simon Easterby handed a Six Nations debut to 21-year-old fly-half Sam Prendergast, with Jack Crowley - who played every minute of last year's tournament - starting on the bench. While he missed a couple of conversion attempts, Prendergast showed some nice touches with ball in hand and nailed an important long-range penalty in the second half which gave Ireland the lead for the first time. "I thought Sam Prendergast was excellent at times and created some really nice opportunities," said Easterby."And like in the autumn, Jack Crowley came on, impacted the game and finished it well."
On Ireland's performance overall, Easterby said: "I thought there were parts of the game we did really well in the first half but didn't quite nail opportunities. "We had a strong kicking game without taking advantage of some of the opportunities and then second half we kicked on. "We were probably a bit smart in the way we played early in the second half and that continued for a good chunk of the second half with the scores coming off the back of that."Easterby also said the result sets Ireland up for a "hell of a challenge" against Scotland at Murrayfield next week. "It's never easy going up there," he said. "They're coming off the back of a win as well."But we need to make sure we get better at the things we know we can and it's important we don't deviate too far away from what's worked for us this week. "It's an important place to go and get a result and it's somewhere we've had a bit of success over the past few years but it's going to be incredibly tough."