O'Mahony helping Doris 'massively' with captaincy

Caelan Doris says Peter O'Mahony has helped him "massively" as he prepares to replace the veteran Munster back row as Ireland captain for Saturday's Test against South Africa in Durban.

Doris stepped up to lead Ireland after O'Mahony was replaced in last week's defeat in Pretoria.

But with O'Mahony dropping to the bench for this week's game, head coach Andy Farrell has again entrusted the Leinster number eight to lead Ireland out.

Doris, a frontrunner to succeed O'Mahony as skipper when the 34-year-old calls time on his Test career, captained Ireland for the first time against Italy in this year's Six Nations.

"First time, in the Italy week, there was more pressure, nerves and more self-doubt. This week, I'm feeling more the honour and the privilege," said Doris, who has also captained his province on several occasions.

"It's been helped massively by Pete, who's obviously the tour captain. We've had good chats along the way but also the leadership group has stepped in massively and taken the weight off me at times."

Following a 27-20 loss to the Springboks in a chaotic first Test, Farrell has opted to shake things up in his pack with Tadhg Beirne shifting to O'Mahony's blindside flanker role and James Ryan coming into the second row.

While conceding that O'Mahony was "not happy obviously" to being benched, Farrell praised his tour captain for putting the needs of the team "at the forefront of his mind constantly", comments which were echoed by Doris.

"I've leaned on them [the leadership group] at times but particularly Pete," added Doris.

"Obviously it's tough for him going from a starting position last week to a bench position this week but he's led unbelievably through the week and has been a massive helping hand for me.

"When he comes on, I'm sure he'll do the same."

Farrell was disappointed with Ireland's performance last week, particularly in the first half.

But Doris says the team had a good meeting on Wednesday about where they need to improve as he called on his team-mates to show "edge" and "aggression" on Saturday.

"I feel the lads have a bit of an edge off the back of that as well," he added.

"We've also spoken about our calm and doing things our way which we can't go away from either.

"It's trying to strike the balance between being calm and doing things how we do them but also showing a bit of edge and aggression as well."