One of the positives in Andy Farrell taking a sabbatical from his day job is that not alone should his experience as the man overseeing the British & Irish Lions make him a better coach but the extra responsibilities ought to benefit the entire Irish coaching staff.
With no additions in personnel, each of them will have to share the extra load while Farrell is away, particularly Simon Easterby. The Irish squad and the Irish public are going to see more of the 49-year-old former backrower, who won 65 caps for Ireland and two for the Lions, in the next seven weeks but it’s doubtful he’ll reinvent his public persona any more than he’ll try to do so with the team.
Farrell is a big character, for sure, but in his own typically unobtrusive way Easterby has accumulated plenty of experience. He had two seasons as an assistant with the Scarlets before cutting his teeth as a head coach for two more seasons with the Welsh club, and in his decade with Ireland he has been a forwards and defence coach under Joe Schmidt and Farrell, as well being head coach on two Emerging Ireland tours. His appointment as interim head coach was a no-brainer.
Who will win the Leinster Schools Rugby Senior Cup?
He will bring his own personality to bear and, like Farrell, doesn’t appear to sweat the small stuff or become unduly nervous.
“Hopefully I’m fairly even-tempered. I’ll tell you in a few weeks,” he said wryly when speaking with a group of Irish journalists at the Six Nations launch in Rome before travelling on to the Algarve in advance of the squad’s arrival there on Wednesday.
“I’d like to think that I’ve got a fairly good grounding now over the last 10/11 years coming from being a head coach in the Scarlets to transitioning into being an assistant coach under Joe and now Faz and working with some incredible people, incredible coaches who love every minute of what we do.
“It doesn’t mean to say that you aren’t nervous or you’re not anxious at times. That’s just living, isn’t it?” he said, sounding uncannily like his master’s voice. “That’s life and if you didn’t enjoy that and you didn’t sometimes feel a little bit of nerves or a little bit of anxiety then you’re maybe not right in the head.
“So, I don’t mind all that, that’s part and parcel. What I’ve got to do is just embrace that and make sure we give the players the best opportunity to go and perform because I genuinely feel this group are hugely motivated to play well in an Irish jersey and they’ve shown that the last few years.
“But also, that there’s a little something at the end of the season to look forward to as well potentially,” he said, in reference to the Lions tour.
Easterby will stay at the helm when Ireland play summer Tests against Georgia and Portugal, the venue of the former game unresolved as yet due to the political unrest there.
As well as endeavouring to ensure as seamless a transition as possible, Easterby cannot but have been heavily influenced by Schmidt and Farrell. So, what one trait or characteristic could he take from them, beginning with the former?
“Good question. He was very consistent. It wasn’t always rocket science but he was consistent with messaging, and he was able to keep driving that, and sometimes in a slightly different way, but always consistent, consistent, consistent, which meant the players were in no doubt about how he wanted the team to play to be successful.
“I think that would probably be the one thing.”
And Farrell?
Easterby paused for a moment before answering: “I guess his uniqueness. He’s unique and I think he has an innate sense of winning and has done throughout his playing career, and now in his head-coaching career. He has a real steely competitive edge but I think he has this ability to find a way to win with some consistency, to find a way to be successful.
“I think they’ve done it in slightly different ways, different styles, but two incredibly successful, motivational characters and in very different ways. So, if I get a mix of them it would be great.”
Apart from Farrell’s sabbatical, the coaching staff remains unaltered from the autumn, with Easterby still overseeing the defence. In addition, there is continuity in selection and preparation.
“It’s not like there’s a huge amount of change but I want to put my mark on things and do things slightly differently at times,” he said.
“You’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, we’re trying to keep evolving as a team. I think we have to, because we saw in the autumn, there are things in our game that we can do better and no doubt that teams coming into this Six Nations will feel like they want to improve on things. We need to try to stay ahead of the curve and make sure that we keep getting better.”
Farrell will have no hands-on role, and will even avoid visiting any of the four squads in training during the Six Nations, although his stamp will remain on things. He was part of the planning for the Six Nations and has been a sounding board, but a reconnaissance mission to Australia was more pressing.
Warren Gatland twice took sabbaticals from his day job when appointed as the Lions head coach for the tours to Australia and New Zealand in 2013 and 2017. Gatland may have sent out overt messages to the Welsh team via the media before they won their title decider against England in 2013, but he maintained that the Lions coach must to take a step away from his international squad, for several reasons.
“I thought from a Lions perspective it was paramount because you have got to pull yourself away from that if you want to be seen as neutral as you possibly can be. If you’re going to watch another team train you’ve got to build trust that you’re not going to share any of the ideas or things you’ve seen.
“So, build a relationship with the other coaches and the trust with the other coaches and having those conversations, I think it’s really important.”
Gatland, who gave Easterby his Irish debut against Scotland in the 2000 Six Nations, also believes that staying outside the parameters of one’s own national team demonstrates a trust in one’s own assistants and will thus help them to grow as coaches.
“You’re helping to develop the other coaches for that role, potentially for the future. As part of their development someone else, like Simon, gets that role and everyone else tends to step up and get an opportunity, I see that as a big positive for us and also for Ireland in the future.”
There will be a feeling around that Farrell will continue to pull the strings in the background, but this didn’t apply when Gatland took his two sabbaticals and is unlikely to do so on this occasion.
“If that was the case, then you’d lose that integrity and that trust with the other teams if you’re going to watch them train.
“You undoubtedly will have some conversations, like ‘how did the week go?’ but you’re not giving any advice, telling them what to do.
“To get the respect that’s required in that role, you’ve got to be impartial and that’s something you’ve got to be conscious of.
“Yes, Andy’s going to be cheering for Ireland and wanting them to do well and Simon to do well in that role, but he’s got to be able to step back a little bit and get trust from other coaches and players.”
As for this year’s Six Nations, when Gatland was asked who was favourite and why, true to type and with his positivity undimmed by their results in 2024, he swiftly responded: “Wales.”
He couldn’t pick a winner from the other five.
“I don’t know. We all know it’s a tournament about momentum and you win that first game,” he began.
“If you look at Ireland’s first game over the last 25 years you’d say they’ve had a reasonably favourable draw compared to most teams. Your first two games in the Six Nations can have an impact.
“At the moment, it’s tough. We’ve France and Italy, really challenging, but getting England at home ... go and check the record books and look at it from a neutral perspective.”
Okay Warren. Historically, playing Italy first has proven favourable, as they Azzurri have lost 21 of their 25 opening games, including the last 11 and it’s true that Wales have played them four times on the opening weekend whereas Ireland have done so seven times (albeit France have done so on eight occasions).
However, while 11 of Ireland’s previous first round games have been at home and 14 have been away, in actual fact Wales have played 14 of their opening matches at home and 11 away.
It’s true that Wales face France away on the opening night next Friday, but then again the same draw befell Ireland last year.
