November is always a busy month for the Aviva Stadium ground staff.
Year on year, you can bank on at least three Irish rugby games that month, and with Leinster renting the stadium while the RDS is being redeveloped, you can probably make allowances for one more.
Additionally, the Aviva will also host a couple of soccer games that month; there will be an FAI Cup final Sunday somewhere in November, and generally a game for the Republic of Ireland during the month's international window.
The last week has been particularly congested. Last Saturday afternoon Ireland took on Japan, and 24 hours later Shamrock Rovers beat Cork City in the FAI Cup decider.
The pitch got two days' rest before the Republic of Ireland and Portugal had a training session each on Wednesday, and then, of course, you had last night's memorable 2–0 win for Heimir Hallgrímsson’s side.
Barely 12 hours later, Caelan Doris was leading the Irish rugby team out for their captain’s run ahead of tomorrow’s Quilter Nations Series clash with Australia.
Even with an orange weather warning hitting Dublin in the next 24 hours, you can bank on the surface being pristine by 8.10pm on Saturday night.
Some of the football lines were just about visible when Ireland took to the pitch this morning. For Doris, it was a pleasant reminder of a special night in Irish sport.
"There was a nice reaction when Ronaldo got sent off..." 🟥
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 14, 2025
Ireland captain Caelan Doris is hoping his team can take inspiration from last night's big win against Portugal ☘️🦘 pic.twitter.com/zAUo100Ql1
"A class win!" the Ireland captain told RTÉ Sport, as his mind drifted to last night’s 2-0 victory for the Irish soccer team.
For the Irish rugby team, this November window is yet to get off the ground, with their tough defeat to New Zealand followed by a facile win against Japan a week ago.
But with two huge games remaining against Australia and South Africa in the next eight days, the Ireland back row is hoping to channel the energy that Troy Parrott and co had last night.
"I think it's an all-time great performance really, isn't it? You could see the passion in how they were playing, the passion in the fans.
"We had it on in the team room. A few of the boys went in as well. It's class to see and hopefully we can have a little bit of that tomorrow night in how we play and how the fans get behind us as well.
"They were cohesive and they just kept attacking the game moment by moment going after it. There was no signs of fear or regard for the opposition really.
"They were just attacking it and playing what was in front of them. It was a joy to watch," Doris added.
The pedant may point out that in terms of tomorrow’s game, Ireland are the Portugal of the story, and the Wallabies are the big underdogs, coming to Dublin off the back of consecutive defeats to England and Italy, while they haven’t beaten Ireland since 2018.
"I think they'll be looking for a big reaction off the back of last weekend. They've obviously had a couple of defeats in a row now which is unlike them," Doris (above) added.
"We're expecting a big reaction. We're expecting them to have a lot of hunger in how they play. It's towards the end of a long season for them now, so they'll be looking to try and finish on a high.
"I'm sure he [Joe Schmidt] is trying to boost morale early in the week, trying to focus on both areas of improvement but also what they're good at.
"I'm sure he's showing signs of how good they've been over the last number of months really, having beaten the Lions, having beaten South Africa and Argentina. They've put in some big performances along the way, so I'm sure there's still a lot of belief there despite the last couple of weekends.
"We're chasing the best performance of the campaign and the year this weekend.
"All areas can improve, it was probably the consistency at which we delivered things wasn't quite there last weekend. Definitely improvements in the last 20 and 30 minutes but we need more of that throughout the whole game from attack, defence and of course set pieces as well."
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Watch Ireland v Australia in the Quilter Nations Series on Saturday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
Win tickets to see England V Ireland at Twickenham Stadium next year & MORE...
