Simon Easterby: Ireland learned from Edinburgh upset

If Ireland’s players required a warning against complacency ahead of this Saturday’s NatWest 6 Nations opener in Paris, then forwards coach Simon Easterby is happy to provide a reminder of the dire consequences that greeted such thoughts on this weekend a year ago.

It is unlikely Joe Schmidt’s squad are entertaining the sort of attitudes some players have admitted entered the mindset in Edinburgh 12 months ago, when Ireland, cock-a-hoop after their history-making heroics against the All Blacks and Australia the previous November, sleepwalked into the 2017 championship opening round at Murrayfield and were ambushed by a rampant Scotland side.

Trailing 14-0 after 21 minutes after full-back Stuart Hogg twice carved open the Irish defence, and 21-5 down by the half-hour mark, Ireland sank to a 27-22 defeat that put them on the back foot for the rest of the campaign.