There's a cruel irony that Ireland’s most durable international will see his British and Irish Lions hopes robbed by injury.
Caelan Doris’s place on this summer’s Lions tour of Australia would have been in no doubt before last Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup defeat to Northampton Saints.
The pain of the semi-final defeat has now been amplified by the shoulder surgery that has ended his Lions hopes for another four years.
In 2021, Doris was never in contention for the tour of South Africa. Back then, the number 8’s fleeting international career had stalled after he wisely sat out the Six Nations to properly address his concussion issues.
While the Lions were taking on the Springboks, Doris was getting back up to speed with Ireland against Japan and USA that summer, and over the course of this four-year cycle, he grew from prospect to captain under Andy Farrell.
In the 45 games Ireland have played in the last four years, Doris has played 44 of them, with the 2025 Six Nations trip to Wales the only game he’s missed in that time. Of those 44 games, 43 have been in the starting team.
Seven days ago, the Lions captaincy appeared to be a straight shootout between him and Maro Itoje (below), before sport’s cruel hand intervened.
Doris turned 27 last month, so he is still on course to be in his prime years when the New Zealand tour rolls around in 2029.
That would have been scant consolation for him as he watched 12 of his Leinster team-mates, and three more Ireland colleagues, celebrate their inclusion.
One comfort will be the empathy in that Leinster squad. Andrew Porter and Cian Healy know what he’s going through.
Four years ago, Porter’s first Lions tour was over before it started, a toe injury in a Pro14 game against Glasgow Warriors seeing him ruled out. The loosehead prop will now have a chance to make up for lost time in 2025.
The last Lions tour to Australia in 2013 was a painful one for Cian Healy. Odds on at the time to be the starting loosehead in the Test series, Healy’s campaign was ended 32 minutes into the second match of the tour when he was stretchered off with an ankle injury.
Confirmation that Doris would miss out was the one sour note from what was an otherwise historic day for Irish rugby.
With Farrell (below) as head coach and several of his Ireland assistants now part of the Lions system, it came as no surprise that green was the dominant colour on the board when the squad was named this afternoon.
In total, Farrell included a record 15 Ireland players, with 12 from England, eight from Scotland and two Welsh as part of his 38-man touring party. He also hasn't ruled out making one or two additions before they depart for Australia in late June.
"Keep fighting and we'll be watching," was his message.
Ireland’s poor finish to the Six Nations, and Leinster’s Champions Cup collapse against Northampton will have given him food for thought, but he ultimately wasn’t swayed by those struggles, and says "credit in the bank" did sway some of his calls across the full squad.
Several of those Leinster players looked guaranteed to be involved. Dan Sheehan, Andrew Porter, Josh van der Flier and Jamison Gibson-Park were never going to miss out, while there was no doubt that Connacht’s Bundee Aki and Munster’s Tadhg Beirne would also be included.
Other Irish players would have been nervously waiting as Ieuan Evans listed out the names alphabetically from the stage at the O2 in London. Jack Conan can be thankful for his surname as he didn’t have long to wait before hearing his name called. Four years ago, the back row hit his career-best form coming into the tour in South Africa and started all three Tests, but with the series played in empty stadiums due to Covid-19, he didn’t get the true Lions experience.
"I think the crowd and the atmosphere and the energy around the Lions is so much to do with the fans and everyone who travels, that sea of red that everyone always talks about, so it was what it was in 2021," he told RTE Sport last week.
"It was something I never thought I'd do. It's not something that I ever thought was on my radar because to that point, I was kind of in and out internationally a lot.
"Whatever happens this year happens, it would be an incredible honour and a joy to go again."
James Ryan is another who would have felt an enormous weight lifted off his shoulders this afternoon. It was one of the major calls in 2021 when Warren Gatland overlooked him, and he may have been fearing the worst this year when an arm injury struck last month. The 28-year-old will finally get his chance this summer.
With so many Irish players included, there were no shock omissions this time around, with Sam Prendergast and Robbie Henshaw the two most notable to miss out, although both would have come into this week with hope of being involved rather than expectation.
Henshaw, a tourist in 2017 and 2021, was one of several centres in the mix behind the expected quartet of Aki, Garry Ringrose, Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu, with the versatility of England’s Elliot Daly ultimately taking that final spot. The Ireland international could well be next cab off the rank if injury befalls any of those centres in the coming weeks.
Prendergast had been strongly tipped by both Irish and British pundits to be included as one of the three-out-halves following a strong start to the Six Nations, but that hype has since cooled following a series of chastening days on defence.
By the time of today’s squad announcement, it was no major surprise to see him miss out behind Finn Russell, Fin Smith and Marcus Smith. With Owen Farrell also waiting for a call, Prendergast may need multiple injuries if he’s to travel to Australia.
The 22-year-old (above) will instead be tasked with stepping up his defence on Ireland’s where the debate between he and Jack Crowley will no doubt continue even in the off-Broadway settings of Georgia and Portugal.
Even across the wider squad, there are no earth-shattering inclusions or exclusions.
A few months ago, it would have been a wild call to predict Henry Pollock being involved at the expense of players like Ben Curry, Rory Darge or Jack Willis, but the 20-year-old's rise has been so impressive it would have been more of a shock had he missed out.
On current form, the Northampton Saints star is even making a strong case to be in the Test squad.
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