Boyle eager to reclaim Connacht place and keep Euro dream alive

PAUL BOYLE missed the cut for Connacht last week, but he wants to take that frustration out on Gloucester as the province seek to rescue their Champions Cup hopes on Saturday.

The former Ireland U-20 player was left out for last weekend’s game in Kingsholm and was left to rue his absence as Connacht wilted in the face of a stern Gloucester challenge.

The Gorey native played the previous week in Connacht’s unconvincing win over Southern Kings, and now that they’re back at the Sportsground again the No.8 wants to help his side to a second win of the competition.

“It is really tough not playing. There is huge competition for places and although we got five points from the Kings game, as a team we really didn’t perform well, and as an individual I wasn’t particularly happy with how I went either,” said Boyle.

“There was a couple of small basic errors and that cost me my place at the weekend. I’ve been training hard this week and I want to get back on the horse and put in a good performance.”

Connacht started their Champions Cup pool with a win over Montpellier in Galway, but since then an impressive performance away to Toulouse went unrewarded, while last weekend’s performance underwhelmed.

Sitting on four points in the standings, three bonus-point wins in their remaining games could still see them qualify as one of three best runners-up.

WHEN Caelan Doris first broke onto the scene with Leinster at the tail end of the 2017-2018 season, he ran into a common problem that many younger players encounter when they make the step up from age-grade rugby.

Doris had just come off the back of a year in which he had captained the Ireland U-20s and was such a standout at that level that running over the opposition came naturally to him.

The No 8 was more athletic than most players on the pitch, so it is little wonder that he was so effective in his ball-carrying as he was able to show off his full array of skills.

Suddenly, when he was asked to do it against bigger and more powerful professional athletes, it wasn’t so easy.

It was no surprise then that Doris worked closely with Leinster’s contact skills coach Hugh Hogan throughout last season as he looked to fine-tune the way in which he carries the ball against bigger men.

“It was the physicality and all that, yeah,” Doris reflects.

“I think I’m adjusting. It took a while to adjust to the physicality and the speed and all of it but I’m definitely a lot happier with the start of this season compared to last year.

“I think I have come on a bit and hopefully there is still lots of room for improvement. I’m enjoying it massively as well, which I think leads into that.

“I probably stick to the same core principles — running hard and good footwork, things like that.

“There’s obviously not as much space at this level. Bodies are bigger and guys are better decision-makers as defenders. It’s probably just adjusting to that.

“I haven’t tweaked too many things in terms of my carrying. I’m making a few more metres this year than last year anyway.”

Having clocked up 15 senior appearances last year, you always got the sense that this was a big season for Doris, particularly after Jack Conan picked up an injury at the World Cup.

With the impressive Max Deegan also providing stiff competition, Leinster’s biggest task is keeping all of these young talents happy.

Had things worked out differently, however, Doris would be playing for Connacht. Growing up in Lacken, a village just outside Ballina — with whom he began playing rugby — the 21-yearold moved to the capital, where he enrolled in Blackrock College.

There aren’t too many 15-yearolds who get selected for the Senior Cup team when they are in fourth year, but Doris’ quality was evident from early on.

“It is satisfying, yeah,” he says of making the step up to European level in such a short space of time.