Easterby focused on Wales, not potential Grand Slam 

Ireland Interim Head Coach Simon Easterby with the media after of the game. Pic: Billy Stickland/Inpho

Simon Easterby moved to keep his Ireland squad’s feet on the ground after they became the last men standing with a shot at a Guinness Six Nations Grand Slam following a dominant win 32-18 over Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday.

Ireland lead the 2025 championship as the only remaining unbeaten team after round two following France’s shock defeat to England at Twickenham on Saturday and their success over the Scots, a victory that puts interim head coach Easterby’s side on course for the Triple Crown with a visit to winless Wales next up in Cardiff on February 22.

This appeared to be a crucial step along the way to a historic first Six Nations three-peat of titles having met the challenge of facing Scotland on their own turf with such aplomb to register an 11th consecutive victory in this fixture and an eighth in a row in the championship, a run dating back to 2018.

Yet the interim boss stifled talk of either a third title or a Grand Slam when the possibilities were put to him during his post-match press conference.

"I think we set out at the beginning of this championship to work hard, keep getting better, keep challenging each other in terms of the standards and I think we're seeing some of that today,” Easterby said.

“There is an opportunity which has been well documented and we've got to make sure that we prepare in the right way for Wales and go to the Millennium Stadium with the same sort of mindset that we came here with.” 

Ireland had led 17-0 after a try apiece from Calvin Nash and captain Caelan Doris before Duhan van der Merwe scored a try on the stroke of half-time and then Blair Kinghorn kicked two penalties soon after the interval to make it 17-11. 

Yet they rallied in style with tries from James Lowe and Jack Conan to secure the bonus point and put the contest to bed.

“Pleased with the application of the players,” Easterby said. “I think we always knew that we’d have to shut them down and stop them getting time and space and momentum.

“I thought we did really well with that without the ball but also on attack, I felt like we delivered a lot of what we had worked on in the week around trying to attack Scotland in the right way.

“Although we conceded late in the first-half, I thought the scoreline was a reflection of our dominance in the game and maybe we could have been one or two scores up.

"I think you are always going to come up against a purple patch. Scotland playing the way they do, they were missing Finn Russell and Darcy Graham (after a first-half head clash between the Scottish stars) and hopefully he’s okay.

“But we always knew that they were going to come out of blocks and try and stress us defensively. And at times we dealt with it really well and at times they stretched us, and that’s part of the game.

“I thought we scrambled well. We managed to turn around a few situations where they got a little bit of ascendancy and we kept them at arm’s length. Then we had the opportunity to go up the other end and be clinical with the ball.” 

Doris described the performance and victory as “very enjoyable”, adding: “We know they are a confident outfit and rightly so. We had spoken about a fast start and I think we did that pretty well scoring within the first 10 minutes and applying quite a bit of pressure.

“When you get up a couple of scores, it’s very enjoyable. It’s enjoyable to be part of this group in general. The lads love representing the group, love representing the country. It was a very enjoyable one today.”