Simon Easterby seems to be enjoying this. He reminds us of his umbilical connection to Italy and the Six Nations – all three came into the top end of the rugby world at the same time – and how 25 years after his international debut he has picked up a few things along the way. Like staying calm and measured in the face of setbacks: for example the loss of two automatic starters from his front five.
Not for the first time in his career Tadhg Furlong, a man familiar with how farming works, has an issue with a troublesome calf. Joe McCarthy on the other hand is a city boy getting to grips with a nose bent out of shape in a training-ground collision that sounds painful and concussive. Losing Furlong at any time is bad news; adding McCarthy, who surely felt the need to balance the books with George Martin after the powerhouse display by the England lock at Twickenham last season, robs Ireland of carrying power and sheer grunt.
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Yet the stand-in head coach glided along, warming to the task when it came to the good news: Ireland have three fit 10s in their squad, two of whom are making a photo-finish out of the selection process. For Sam Prendergast, the Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa in the autumn was his opportunity to convince Easterby he has the right stuff. Jack Crowley, on the bench tomorrow, did the same thing on the 2022 version of the tour.
“The Emerging [trip] was great for us as coaches to get to work with him [Prendergast] and get to know him, more importantly I think, as a person,” Easterby says. “He’s laid-back in the sense he’s pretty chilled in how he goes about his business, but I think any 10 who really wants to progress and kick on has to grab hold of things like this and say: ‘This is my team.’ There can be no grey about who’s in charge and how he wants to lead the team. And I think he’s done that really well.
“Jack’s been brilliant as well, to be fair to him, and Ciarán Frawley. I think there’s a degree of competitiveness in Sam, which you guys might not see. I think having Cian as a brother probably helps, so he’s grown up having to fight his way through a few situations. But in terms of him as a person he’s grown massively over the last six to eight months, hasn’t he? He’s had some massive experiences.”
Ireland XV: H Keenan (Leinster); M Hansen (Connacht), G Ringrose (Leinster), B Aki (Connacht), J Lowe (Leinster); S Prendergast (Leinster), J Gibson-Park (Leinster); A Porter (Leinster), R Kelleher (Leinster), F Bealham (Connacht), J Ryan (Leinster), T Beirne (Munster), R Baird (Leinster), J Van der Flier (Leinster), C Doris (Leinster, capt).
Replacements: D Sheehan (Leinster), C Healy (Leinster), T Clarkson (Leinster), I Henderson (Ulster), J Conan (Leinster), C Murray (Munster), J Crowley (Munster), R Henshaw (Leinster).
So has Easterby. He had a new lease of coaching life with the changing of the guard after the 2019 Rugby World Cup, with Andy Farrell taking over from Joe Schmidt. The shift in style opened a few doors Easterby thought were locked.
“I think as a young head coach as I was at club [level] you’re trying to look at everything and every part of the game and you end up not being able to see the wood for the trees,” he says. “It’s all consuming. I think over a period of time you realise what you can do and what you can share with other coaches. But I think you develop a feel for players and what they’re going through and how you can support that. Yes, there’s always tactical and technical things you want to keep strong in your side, but it’s those conversations you have with players, the chats you have that allows you to get a feel for that player and get the best out of them whether they’re starting or on the bench or not involved at all.”
In this case there is quite a range to those conversations: the right words for Crowley and Robbie Henshaw who were left out; the easier chats with Thomas Clarkson and Iain Henderson who benefit from the injuries to Furlong and McCarthy respectively. The conversation with Garry Ringrose meantime would have been short and sweet. In a Lions year Ireland’s best outside centre since Brian O’Driscoll needs the minutes to reinforce his status. Like the coach, he’s enjoying the limelight.
