East goes west

THERE was an inevitability, according to Leinster manager Guy Easterby, about how the European champions came out of the Heineken Cup pool draw this summer alongside Scarlets, whose new head coach is Simon Easterby.

The brothers from Yorkshire, both representatives of Ireland and still bonded in their post-playing careers having been pitted against each other on the European stage come face-to-face on October 20 at Parc y Scarlets in round two of the pool series.

“We knew straight away, without even turning up that they were going to be in our group,” former scrum-half Guy Easterby, 41, said of his younger sibling, the back rower. “But I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes. In terms of advice and stuff, I’ll give him as much as I possibly can but when we play each other I might steer him in the wrong direction. But after that I’ll give him as much help as we can.”