Easterby 'excited' by challenge of facing Dupont under Paris lights

Ireland take on Les Bleus in the tournament opener on Thursday evening. 

Defence Coach Simon Easterby. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

Finding ways to stop Antoine Dupont from weaving his rugby magic could be enough to give defence coaches sleepless nights but Ireland’s Simon Easterby insists the challenge of keeping France’s talismanic captain shackled this Thursday is an exciting one.

Toulouse’s former World Rugby Men’s XVs Player of the Year is set to lead his country for the first time in 11 months when Ireland visit Stade de France for their Guinness Six Nations opening-round clash. It was against Ireland in Dublin that Dupont sustained a serious cruciate ligament injury during the first half of the Aviva Stadium encounter yet France still inflicted a 42-27 victory in their leader’s absence.

Indeed, Fabien Galthie’s side not only ended Ireland’s reign as champions, Les Bleus reclaimed the title and the prospect of a fit-again Dupont back of the heart of the France side on home turf under the lights this week is a sobering prospect, or so one would have thought.

“No, it's exciting,” countered defence coach Easterby on Sunday as Ireland wound up their pre-championship training camp in Portugal before flying to Paris on Monday.

“I think there's been plenty of speculation around who's the best player in the world over the last few weeks and there's always a debate around those types of players. France probably were lucky that they've had a couple of very good nines to step up when Dupont has been away but he's a heartbeat of their team.

“He makes their team tick and he makes things happen. That's just him as a player. He probably breeds a bit of confidence in their ranks but that for us is an exciting challenge and I think it's one that if it was keeping me up at night then I'd be in the wrong place.

“I think that's what playing in the Six Nations is all about, you get the chance to play against some of the best players in the world in some of the best environments and the best stadiums. No better place to be.” 

Ireland have been focusing almost exclusively on themselves during their week on the training field at Quinta do Lago’s The Campus, with some of the emphasis on righting the wrongs of last November’s Autumn Nations Series defeats to New Zealand and South Africa, when lapses of discipline led to soaring penalty counts and cards. While the abiding memory from the loss to the Springboks was of a scrum dominated by the world champions, Easterby also stressed the importance of painting the right pictures at the breakdown, where referees have also penalised Ireland repeatedly. IRFU referee Peter Martin has been working with the squad on the Algarve this week and the defence coach also cited a recent meeting between the Six Nations referees and the national coaching staffs to clarify the way matches would be managed by the officials.

“It's something we talk about consistently when we come into camp. We get an opportunity to hear what the referees are thinking prior to camp. I think it was the Wednesday before we were in the office and we had the referees meeting, along with all the other coaches in the Six Nations, along with the referees.

“And it was probably a good chance to find out what they're thinking for this period. And some of that will be reflections for them of the autumn and what they might be focusing a little bit more on in the Six Nations.

“And we (Ireland coaches) are not playing the game week-in, week-out. So we also get a bit of guidance from players around what they think referees are putting a focus on. And again, that helps us in terms of shaping how we want to make sure we go after things, but have the discipline around our decision-making as well.” Martin’s involvement in Portugal was part of an ongoing process using IRFU referees to try and get on the same page at match officials.

“We try and do it every week, certainly on at least one session, maybe two,” Easterby explained. “It's good because there's those little conversations that go on and players have spoken to Pete today around different parts of the game and those little conversations, it's important that we get a feel for what they're thinking, away from the pressures of the game and get their understanding of what they might be chasing down.

“So, I think it's been brilliant. We've always had somebody in, if it's not Pete, it'd be somebody else from the IRFU and it makes a big difference. It means that me or Faz (head coach Andy Farrell) or Goody (attack coach Andrew Goodman), one of the other coaches, doesn't have to referee as well, which could be a bit painful.”