Thoughtful and meticulous for the most part in teasing out his answers, Simon Easterby cuts a relaxed figure in his first official media engagement since taking over from John Plumtree as Ireland's forwards' coach. The surroundings are not unfamiliar. It's been just six years since he won the last of his 65 caps for Ireland, scoring eight tries.
The livery remains green, albeit a slightly darker hue – it's just he wears a polo shirt now, rather than a jersey when on a pitch. His predecessor's unexpected departure meant that Ireland coach Joe Schmidt's phone call from South America, where the national side were engaged in a two-Test summer duel with Argentina, came as a bolt from the light blue, so to speak.
No expectation
There was no vacancy, so therefore no expectation, or chance to daydream. He made a few phone calls but none to current or former Ireland players. “The fact that he (Schmidt) considered me . . . I was very proud that I got the call and it didn’t take long for me to feel like it was an opportunity that I wanted to take up.
“There was a few hurdles and a few things to get through before that was finalised but I have got to say that the work that the union did and the Scarlets did to make it happen was exceptional and probably (with) another club or any other team I wouldn’t have pushed it as far as I did. Fortunately we came to an agreement.”
Easterby, worked his notice, staying on until near the end of August to ensure a smooth handover to the Scarlets' incoming head coach, Wayne Pivac. The Schmidt factor was a massive plus in his decision to accept the Ireland position.
"Joe is someone who I would have had a good deal of time for as an opposing coach. We always got on well. We had similar ideas. He progressed to winning a couple of Heineken Cups at the time with Leinster after we beat them at Parc Y Scarlets in one of his first games. But you could see even then, he had something about him that was going to drive whatever environment he was in.
"You speak to the guys at Clermont and they had huge admiration for the work he did under Vern Cotter. The same with the guys at Leinster (where Simon's brother, Guy is team manager). It goes without saying that you want to work with the best. And Joe is certainly one of those.
“And having come into camp, I was also keen to work with Les [Kiss] and Greg [Feek]. I’m learning all the time and it’s a great environment to be in. You’re always progressing and moving forward. We are limited in terms of time but we get through a lot of work and we only come out of it better as coaches and people.”
The 39-year-old fulfilled a number of coaching roles (defence, forwards) over the past six years in Llanelli before taking over the top position in 2012. He dismisses the notion of a requisite time period to serve an apprenticeship before graduating to the Test arena. He points to Rob Howley (Wales), Robin McBryde (Wales) and Andy Farrell (England) who transitioned quickly from the club to international environment.
Easterby explained: “You don’t go looking for these opportunities. You just work hard and try to improve, learning from players and other coaches every day. Coaching posts come up out of the blue. Someone leaves a job, someone gets sacked. It’s different to playing. When you’re a player you continue through each contract, then you get another one, or go to another club, or retire. Coaching is a little more fluid. You have to react to opportunities.
“That pull was big in terms of coaching Ireland. I think if it had been another club or another international team it wouldn’t have had the same value to me. It’s probably a balance of the two. Clearly coaching at international level is a big step up. But obviously I have a natural affinity to this [job].”
Daily regiment
He understands the dynamic of swapping the daily regiment of the club scene for the limited time available to the national coaching cadres. “It is an adjustment but the environment that’s being created when they are in camp, you don’t lose any time. Every minute is valuable. Without throwing too much at the players, we put them under a bit of pressure to react. There is no dead time. It’s good confidence building at the moment and it’s challenging as well.”
Easterby pointed to the work of his predecessor, Plumtree, the fact that Ireland are Six Nations champions and their summer Test series victories over Argentina as empirical proof of a squad doing so many things right.
“The players drive a lot of this stuff that is already in place. They have gotten progressively better and they have grown themselves in their current environment and driving a lot of the standards. Sometimes you try and back yourself and what you have already done but sometimes you have to go and look at things slightly differently. That’s probably where I come in.”
