Ireland interim coach Simon Easterby said on Tuesday that he is ready to use his years of experience working with the side to take the country to a third successive Six Nations Championship success, adding he knows the team will need to improve to stay on top.
Easterby has been a part of the Ireland coaching set-up since 2014, but has now taken over the head coach role while Andy Farrell takes charge of the British & Irish Lions squad.
Ireland, Grand Slam winners in 2023 and champions last year, will be the team everyone wants to beat, and Easterby spoke at the launch of this year’s Six Nations in Rome about how he is getting to grips with the new challenge.
“I guess trying to embrace everything, trying to build continuity in what we’ve done before,” Easterby told reporters on Tuesday.
“I’m hugely excited about the group of players we’ve got to work with, the coaches, the continuity I guess in selection. There’s not a lot of change from the autumn, not a lot of change from the last Six Nations.
“But the players are a year older, and I think that they’re also hugely motivated to go on and keep being successful and staying ahead of the other teams.”
This may be his first head coaching role since his time in charge of Scarlets more than a decade ago, but Easterby has had opportunities with Ireland to gain experience in leading a team.
“I’ve taken a young team, the emerging team, to South Africa. We’ve done that twice over the last couple of years and that’s been beneficial for us as a coaching group,” Easterby said.
“It’s meant that other coaches in the system have had an opportunity to lead and I’m one of those myself. So that’s been a really useful exercise and I get to know some of the younger players in the system as well, which has helped.”
Easterby, who has worked under Joe Schmidt and Farrell with Ireland, is aiming to use his chance to improve an Ireland side who lost to New Zealand in November and had narrow wins over Argentina and Australia.
“I think there’s a genuine internal motivation to do that and I think that’s something that we’ve got to make sure that we keep driving as coaches,” Easterby said.
“Keep pushing the lads to do what we do really well, but keep evolving as well and keep adding layers to our game because every team will try and improve.
“I’ve been very lucky to be in this position now, but after 10 or 11 years in an assistant role I do genuinely feel fortunate that I’ve had that long in the role.
“It’s an opportunity for me to try and make sure that we kick on and keep evolving and keep getting better because we’re going to have to be successful this year.”
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Source: espn.com