BUT FOR THE reawakening of the Emerging Ireland team, it would now be over a decade since Simon Easterby’s last experience as a head coach.
The former Ireland back row first moved into coaching with the Scarlets, retiring from playing for the Welsh region to take over their defence coach role. Two years later, in 2012, he was promoted to head coach.
Easterby’s two seasons in charge were creditable as Scarlets finished fourth and sixth in the Pro12 – they did struggle in the Heineken Cup, though – before Joe Schmidt came calling in 2014. Easterby was Ireland’s forwards coach for nearly seven years from that point until Paul O’Connell joined Andy Farrell’s coaching ticket in 2021 and Easterby moved into the defence coach gig he has held since.
When the Emerging Ireland side was put together hastily in 2022, it was with the intention of fast-tracking the development of young players who had the potential to feature for Ireland at Test level. But it was also about furthering the development of the Ireland coaches.
Farrell and the IRFU decided he wouldn’t travel with the young group, Easterby instead taking on the head coach role in the first big hint that he was the man who would step up to the senior job on an interim basis if and when Farrell was confirmed as the 2025 Lions boss. Some might have thought Paul O’Connell could step up, but he has never been a head coach and it doesn’t seem like he would enjoy the non-coaching demands.
And so, Easterby has now officially been announced as the interim Ireland head coach for the 2025 Six Nations and summer tour to Romania and Georgia while Farrell is off touring Australia with the Lions.
Handily enough, Easterby will get another taste of head coaching on the upcoming Emerging Ireland tour, a two-week block in which 33 players will do their utmost to impress Easterby, O’Connell, scrum coach John Fogarty, and new Ireland backs coach Andrew Goodman, who joined from Leinster during the summer.
Even if the Emerging Ireland tours will both have been short, it surely helps Easterby and co. to get a good sense of how they’ll work without Farrell next year.
And though Easterby hasn’t been a longer-term head coach since back in 2014, he has been amassing serious experience in Test rugby over the last decade.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with good people, have great guys to learn from within our coaching group, within our management group and consistently a strong group of players that come in who are just keen to learn and have an appetite for competition, an appetite to get better,” he said yesterday.
“I think it’s a very different sort of setting, the one I’m entering into in a few months’ time, compared to the one I left [when he was at Scarlets].
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with great people who built my knowledge and understanding and development, certainly in the time of working with Joe and Faz.”
Easterby will be in charge for just six months but they will be important times for the Ireland squad as they look to defend their Six Nations title and then use the tour to Eastern Europe for more squad development with a presumably large group of Irish players joining Farrell on the Lions tour.
Next year’s Six Nations sees Ireland hosting England and France in Dublin so they’ll fancy their chances, but the English have improved and the French will have Antoine Dupont back after he missed the 2024 championship. Throw in three away games in Scotland, Wales, and Italy and it will be a big challenge for Easterby.
The 2027 World Cup is still a long way off and Ireland tend to be good at focusing on what’s directly in front of them, but there’s no doubt that 2025 could see some important foundations being laid, particularly with that summer tour and the chance to increased depth.
Farrell is Ireland’s attack coach as well as being the overall boss but with Goodman having come in as backs coach – that role involves directing the team’s set-piece attack plays and specific backline coaching – it seems natural that the Kiwi will take on the broader attack role while Farrell is away.
It would seem sensible for Easterby to continue with his hands-on coaching of the defence but it might be that Ireland feel they need to add an extra body to the staff for the Six Nations and summer tour.
That trip to Georgia and Romania would seem like an ideal time for a promising young coach within the Irish system to step up temporarily, as Connacht assistant coach Pete Wilkins did on the summer tour to New Zealand in 2022 when he assisted with the midweek team. Wilkins is now Connacht’s head coach.
There is also an Ireland A game against England A to come during the Six Nations window, the Irish team visiting Bristol the day after Easterby’s Ireland have played Wales in Cardiff. Maybe the senior staff can double up but that might be a stretch even with a Six Nations break weekend to follow.
There is, of course, scope for the IRFU to look further afield next year, potentially bringing in a coach who is not currently part of the Irish system.
“It could be either,” said Easterby. “There’s no closed book on this, it’s pretty open and it’s exciting really. If we think there’s a need for something and we’re losing a big personality in Faz and a lot of IP in what he brings to the group – if it means someone comes from within the system or outside, that’ll be a conversation we have with David Humphreys [the IRFU performance director].
“I think he’s open-minded to whatever adds to the group and makes the group as strong as it can be.”
Easterby was at pains to stress that him taking over as interim head coach is some way down the tracks and that the set-up will only be considered after the November Tests, which Farrell will still be in charge for and which get underway in just seven weeks with a Friday night clash against New Zealand.
But the temporary promotion for Easterby itself shows that the IRFU tend to plan well ahead. So while we’ll be watching Ireland’s development or otherwise on the pitch closely in 2025, it will be fascinating to see what happens in the coaching box too.
