Easterby starts as he means to go on but plenty to tweak for Scotland showdown
IN THE MIX: Ireland’s Jamison Gibson-Park taps the ball down to Jack Conan. Pic: INPHO/Billy Stickland
Well that went well. As his introduction to Test match head coaching, Simon Easterby could not have delivered much better than this Six Nations win at Aviva Stadium.
Defeating England in Dublin in the opening round of the championship will always be a moment of satisfaction for an Ireland boss, even more so when you are only minding the shop in the absence of the permanent head coach. So to do it with a try bonus point and a vastly improved performance from what went before last November will have been extra special for Easterby in his first game in interim charge.
Had the defence coach lost on home soil on Saturday, the television images of the actual boss, Andy Farrell, watching from the stands would have taken on an altogether more devilish context. Yet the man now holding the reins of the British & Irish Lions for the coming months will have been delighted with the way his locum managed the challenge.
Farrell had described his team’s performances in the Autumn Nations Series as “clunky” and Ireland had displayed some similar traits from the last international window during the opening quarter of this Six Nations opener but they proved to be mere teething troubles. Handling errors and disciplinary infringements contributed to several missed try-scoring opportunities, including a disallowed try for Ronan Kelleher, before scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park replied to Cadan Murley’s early opening score for the visitors on 34 minutes, completed with a step to give England full-back Freddie Steward nightmares. And that Irish try brought a distinct change in momentum as England began to fall away, their 10-5 half-time lead far from ominous for Easterby and his players but rather a milestone to be reached and surpassed.
Superior fitness, greater accuracy and more clinical execution was all too much for a less experienced English side across the next 35 minutes as Ireland rediscovered the attacking fluency that had been absent before Christmas, with an effective and error-free set-piece and an increasingly efficient breakdown securing the freedom for Irish playmakers to express themselves.
Sam Prendergast’s long pass to Bundee Aki got the ball rolling for the second try on 51 minutes and the fly-half had the confidence to take on and nail a long-range penalty soon after missing his second conversion of the match as Ireland moved 13-10 in front.
Lowe, a week on from his comeback for Leinster after a two-month injury lay-off, had carved a path for man of the match Gibson-Park to score the opener and the pair were magnificent in creating an opening for Tadhg Beirne 12 minutes later. Lowe was also the provider of the final pass for the bonus-point try in a move started and finished by another returnee, Dan Sheehan. The hooker who sustained a serious knee injury in last summer’s first Test in South Africa had also returned for his province the previous week and made a serious impact on proceedings. His short pass at the line to fellow replacement Jack Conan set the back-rower free to maraud upfield from where the ball was sent left to Lowe, whose inside pass was received by Sheehan to mark his comeback in style.
With Jack Crowley on for Prendergast and taking Ireland’s performance up another notch, as well as slotting two conversions, and Thomas Clarkson impressive as a replacement for injured tighthead starter Finlay Bealham, it made for an impressive and impactful bench contribution that will give the interim head coach the right kind of headaches ahead of selection for this Sunday’s visit to Scotland.
“You definitely want that,” Easterby said. “It’s hard leaving players out of the 15, it’s hard leaving them out of the 23 because they’re all good fellas and they all back the guys who get selected and it makes training competitive.
“That’s what the national side should be about, it should be having enough players to compete in nearly every position and the guys who came off the bench did a brilliant job but the foundation was laid by some of the brilliant work that the lads did up front.
“In the first half, it wasn’t easy going, it was sticky at times, it was attritional and I think we benefited from that as we brought on a few guys as the second half went on.”
Easterby was quick to point out there will be lots of improvements to make ahead of the Murrayfield clash, not least the concession of two tries, scored by Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman in the last five minutes as Ireland switched off a little too early.
“I guess defensively we conceded a little bit of ground, they got behind us a few times, certainly making sure we’re stronger on that side of the ball, that will probably be a big focus for this week. Scotland have many threats up front but in particular out wide and in the back row, they’re a really strong attacking team. So we need to make sure we’re better without the ball for sure, next week.”
Scotland opened their account with a bonus-point victory at home to Italy earlier on Saturday but Easterby believes Ireland will travel to Edinburgh in fine spirits, and with confidence enhanced by overcoming their first high-intensity outing of the championship.
"It sets us up for what will be a hell of a challenge in Murrayfield. It's never easy going up there, they're coming off the back of a win as well but we need to make sure we get better at the things we know we can and it will be important that we don't deviate too far away from what's worked for us this week.
"But it's an important place to go and get a result, it's somewhere where we've had a little bit of success in the last few years but we know it's going to be incredibly tough.”
: H Keenan; M Hansen (R Henshaw, 4-17 - blood), G Ringrose, B Aki (R Henshaw, 57), J Lowe; S Prendergast (J Crowley, 58), J Gibson-Park (C Murray, 74); A Porter (C Healy, 73), R Kelleher (D Sheehan, 50), F Bealham (T Clarkson, 58); J Ryan (I Henderson, 61), T Beirne; R Baird (J Conan, 50), J van der Flier, C Doris – captain.
: F Steward (F Smith, 64); T Freeman, O Lawrence, H Slade, C Murley; M Smith, A Mitchell (H Randall, 64); Genge (F Baxter, 70), L Cowan-Dickie (T Dan, 55), W Stuart (J Heyes, 37-ht – HIA & 50-59 – HIA & 70); M Itoje – captain, G Martin (O Chessum, 59); T Curry, B Curry (C Cunningham-South, 59), B Earl (T Willis, 55).
Yellow card: M Smith 25-35
: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
