IRELAND INTERIM HEAD Coach Simon Easterby has described Dan Sheehan as “pretty impressive” after he capped off his return from an ACL injury with a hat-trick of tries against Italy.
Sheehan’s haul powered Ireland to victory in their final Six Nations outing as Ireland found the Italians difficult to shake off in a nervy 22-17 bonus-point victory.
The Ireland hooker, who suffered the horrible knee injury during Ireland’s summer tour to South Africa last July, was considered a doubt for this year’s Six Nations but made a return to rugby after just seven months. He produced a man-of-the-match display for Leinster against the Stormers before rejoining the Ireland fold for the Six Nations opener against England.
He scored a try in that game after coming on in the second half, and finished his campaign with five tries after the hat-trick against Italy.
“It’s pretty impressive,” Easterby said after his side’s underwhelming performance to round off a disappointing Six Nations which saw them lose control of their title defence after losing heavily to France.
“The maul gives him that platform and I’m delighted that and the scrum were pretty good today. It gave us the opportunity, in a different way, to score points and sometimes you need to do that.
“The game isn’t always perfect and you need to find a way and I thought the pleasing thing is we did that with the tries that Dan scored from the maul and how effective that was. That’s part of the game, isn’t it. If one way doesn’t work, you need to find the solution with another way that might work.”
Easterby also reaffirmed his commitment to the Irish system. He previously dismissed speculation linking him with the Wales head coach position. The ex-Ireland international — who has been filling in as Ireland boss with Andy Farrell away on Lions duty – previously played and coached with Welsh region Scarlets. He also still lives in Wales with his family.
The WRU is searching for Warren Gatland’s long-term successor after Matt Sherratt took over on an interim basis during the Six Nations. But Easterby insists that he will be staying put.
“I’m committed,” Easterby said. “I think when your name gets bandied around, that’s all it is, its just speculation. If I’d been contacted I’d tell you, but I haven’t. So, that’s the way it is at the moment.
“I love what I do. I’m very fortunate and it might be 15 minutes up the road but I just feel very fortunate that I get the experiences I get to do this while Faz is away. I get to work with great people and how important that is.
“I’m pretty happy where I am.”
Give the job to Katie Mc Cabe, she ran it during Vera Pauws reign, then ran Vera, and under- petformed for Gleeson.
No future for them as long as K Mc C is involved!!!!
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: *performed
It was the right decision to let her go. If they hadn’t, it would have looked like player power was the driving factor. But I think Irish Women’s football is now back to square one.