Simon Easterby will add layers but won't reinvent the Ireland wheel

Interim Ireland boss Simon Easterby has the leeway to implement change and the evolvution of the team must continue regardless of who is in charge.

GLADIATORS: Pictured (L-R) Wales’ Jac Morgan, England’s Maro Itoje, France’s Antoine Dupont, Ireland’s Caelan Doris, Scotland’s Rory Darge and Italy’s Michele Lamaro at the launch of the 2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations Championship at the Colosseum in Rome Pic: Billy Stickland, Inpho

Andy Farrell might have departed the scene, for a while at least, but Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations title defence will not lose momentum with Simon Easterby holding the reins.

While the head coach is away for eight months as he devotes himself to leading the British & Irish Lions to series win against Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies in Australia this summer, the caretaker boss intends to maintain a balance between continuity of the methods that have delivered back-to-back titles in the championship and the additions necessary to taking Ireland onto a higher plane in order to secure a third in a row in 2025.

The mission begins next Saturday when England provide the opposition at Aviva Stadium as well as the incentive to exact revenge after Steve Borthwick’s team defied expectations and produced their performance of the 2024 championship to halt Ireland’s bid for back-to-back Grand Slams in the penultimate round at Twickenham.

With Farrell absent, interim head coach Easterby has the leeway to implement change but while he has promised he is “not trying to reinvent the wheel”, the evolution of the team must continue regardless of who is in charge.

That said, stepping into the shoes of a dominant leader such as his boss is no small task. Easterby has served both Farrell and his predecessor Joe Schmidt since leaving his role as a head coach at Scarlets to join the Ireland set-up 11 years ago and speaking in Rome earlier this week after taking his place alongside Borthwick and their fellow head coaches Fabien Galthie, Warren Gatland, Gonzalo Quesada and Gregor Townsend, he addressed his objectives for his step up from defence coach.

“Faz has got a big personality, he does things his way as Joe did things his way and that's kind of my challenge, to embrace what's gone before and certainly there will be a lot of consistency in what we do.

“There’s been consistency in selection, coaching group, staff in the environment so it's not like there's a huge amount of change but I want to put my mark on things and do things slightly differently at times but there'll be also lots of consistency as well.

“So you're not trying to reinvent the wheel, we’re trying to keep evolving as a team. I think we have to, because we saw in the autumn, there are things in our game that we can do better and no doubt that teams coming into this Six Nations will feel like they want to improve on things and we need to try and stay ahead of the curve and make sure that we keep getting better.”

That includes on the training pitch following a review of a what was, by Ireland’s standards, a mediocre Autumn Nations Series two months ago in which they lost to New Zealand and were not at the best even in beating Argentina, Fiji and Australia.

“We've reflected honestly around the autumn and I know there's been a bit of debate around why that was and maybe we weren't quite clicking etc. I think what is slightly different to now where players have come in battle hardened and they're kind of in the groove and there's a competition to win as well whereas in the autumn currently there isn't anything to win.

“So I think there's a motivation there, but importantly we feel like there's things in our game that we can add a layer to. It might be something that we have tried to do but not driven it as hard as coaches or something that we haven't tried to do at all. But these are the opportunities to try and put a few of those things.

“We’re not trying to revolutionise the way we play. What works really well has done for a while and for a reason, when we do our things our way. It’s just about evolving as a team and trying to become less predictable, trying to challenge the opposition in a different way.

“That might be really obvious at times and it might not be at times, but we're generally always trying to do is trying to find a way of being better at what we do, but also trying to evolve our game and try to add layers to it.”

Having worked for both Farrell and Schmidt for lengthy periods during their successful tenures, Easterby was asked to select one trait of their management style he would try to deploy during his supervision of the national team.

Starting with Schmidt, with whom as forwards coach he helped Ireland to three Six Nations titles including the 2018 Grand Slam, the interim boss said: “He was very consistent.

“It wasn’t always rocket science but he was consistent with messaging, and he was able to keep driving that, and sometimes in a slightly different way, but always consistent, consistent, consistent, which meant the players were in no doubt about how he wanted the team to play to be successful.

“I think that would probably be the one thing.” 

And Farrell, who transitioned Easterby into his defence coach on succeeding Schmidt after the 2019 World Cup?

“I guess his uniqueness. He’s unique and I think he has an innate sense of winning and has done throughout his playing career, and now in his head coaching career. He has a real steely competitive edge but I think his ability to find a way to win with some consistency, to find a way to be successful.

“I think they've done it in slightly different ways, different styles, but two incredibly successful around motivational characters and in very different ways. So if I get a mix of them it would be great.” 

Ireland supporters will not argue with that.