Caelan Doris

Discarding Wayne Pivac as boss after a disappointing Autumn series could have been a big risk coming less two months before this Six Nations championship and ...

"Covid had a big part of that. They might be playing on the underdog card as well, potentially. "It was a bit of a surprise," he admitted. "Everyone's buzzing around the place, excited for the Six Nations to start, excited for the growth that still needs to come," Doris stressed. "The team was announced when we were in the airport flying back and our phones were hopping." "Sometimes you can get an insight into the team early on and it's not guaranteed so you don't want to get ahead of yourself, but I was delighted. "I was saying to Faz that I was shocked that the three years had flown by. Playing a bit of cards the other night, it reminded me of playing cards with Dev Toner three years ago - he took me under his wing in the first camp. "We had one on ones (with Farrell) last week and it was the same thing three years ago. "You know it’s coming, and then just staying tight, trying to stay present in the moment, taking deep breaths, getting our nervous system into a neutral state, all of that is going to be helpful. "I'm sure there'll be a bit of desperation for them as well - we can possibly take advantage of that if we can get on top early on. “Well, you can picture some of the things that they will be saying going into camp with Gatland back, with some of their club teams going quite well in Europe," Doris remarked.