Easterby Appointed Ireland Forwards Coach

[Feicarsinn]

http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/32151.php#.U8hv1_ldX5d

The Irish Rugby Football Union today announced the appointment of Simon Easterby as Ireland forwards coach.

Simon Easterby joins the Ireland coaching set-up from the Scarlets in Llanelli where he has been head coach since 2012.


A former Ireland captain, Simon played 65 times for Ireland between 2000 and 2008 and was a member of the British & Irish Lions tour squad in 2005.


Easterby first captained Ireland in the 2005 Guinness Series and now nine years on he will make his coaching debut this November with games against South Africa, Georgia and Australia.


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Commenting on the announcement, Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt said: "Simon has tremendous Test match experience combined with an in-depth knowledge of the current national squad players.


"He is well known to Irish rugby supporters and to many of the players and his knowledge and experience will help drive the team forward."


Easterby added: "It's an exciting time to be involved in Irish rugby and I am looking forward to helping the team continue to be as competitive as possible."

 

[munstermuffin]

Will give us something different or as we like to say down here ..... Passion and Heart

 

[Feicarsinn]

I have no clue how he's going to do. As a player he was one of the most underrated blindsides in Europe in the 00's, as the 2005 Lions tour showed. As a coach his performances have been pretty middling with Llanelli. 4th and 6th place aren't poor showings in the league I guess, and they were competitive enough in Europe this year, although their home games against Quins and Racing really let them down.

It's hard to judge how competent a forwards coach he'll be considering how poor the quality of forward he's had to work with at Scarlets has been.

 

[lynam1104]

Thats the issue as hes been a defense/head coach its hard to gauge how he'll go as a forwards coach, I think he'll do fine hes not plumtree but I have faith in Joe's appointments.

 

[munstermuffin]

In fairness he was a top player on limited skills but that is why he makes a good coach. He has a great rugby brain and a tactical nous. He's done a fine job with limited resources at Scarlets. I think his style and personality is suited to what Schmidt wants. Has this role came too early for him... I don't know but wish him the best of luck and I do think he may be a success.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Thats the issue as hes been a defense/head coach its hard to gauge how he'll go as a forwards coach, I think he'll do fine hes not plumtree but I have faith in Joe's appointments.

Easterby isn't long enough out of the game for this to be a problem in my opinion. Has forward play evolved all that much since 2008? Ireland's pack was easily the best in Europe this season by doing the by doing the basics very well. They won their own ball at the line out and scrum, rucked and mauled well, and put the opposition under pressure when they had the ball. Nothing revolutionary there.

If Easterby can communicate what he wants done clearly then we should be okay.

 

[lynam1104]

Easterby isn't long enough out of the game for this to be a problem in my opinion. Has forward play evolved all that much since 2008? Ireland's pack was easily the best in Europe this season by doing the by doing the basics very well. They won their own ball at the line out and scrum, rucked and mauled well, and put the opposition under pressure when they had the ball. Nothing revolutionary there.

If Easterby can communicate what he wants done clearly then we should be okay.

I agree that we did the basics to excellent standard (classic Joe), but I think and particularly with the maul Plumtree brought a lot of subtleties and variations which were extremely useful, for example the jumper would hand off the ball to the back of the maul before he even reached the ground, not strictly legal but refs weren't picking it up so it was fine. Now It's not like they've forgotten everything over night but when other teams work it out/refs pick up on it thats when Easterby's true value will be found. Having said you have a point in that hes not been gone for long, I reckon hes a valuable addition to the set up.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Was Plumtree ever a forwards coach before the Ireland gig though? A quick scan of his wiki page doesn't indicate so, but he's got a lot of assistant roles that may have entailed that job.

 

[lynam1104]

Was Plumtree ever a forwards coach before the Ireland gig though? A quick scan of his wiki page doesn't indicate so, but he's got a lot of assistant roles that may have entailed that job.

I'm fairly certain most of those assistant roles were as forwards coach, I have feeling he was for NZ in the early 2000's but not entirely sure.

 

[goodNumber10]

Was Plumtree ever a forwards coach before the Ireland gig though? A quick scan of his wiki page doesn't indicate so, but he's got a lot of assistant roles that may have entailed that job.

pretty certain that's what he specialised in... he was a flanker after all.


quite a bold move in my mind, i don't think we've seen enough to say he'll be good or bad...i can see him earning his spurs as forwards coach, then being given a province.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

It'll be interesting to see if his job is as wide reaching as John Plumtree. I suspect Greg Feek will assume a greater role than before and Paul O'Connell will be given a lot of input too.

 

[munstermuffin]

It'll be interesting to see if his job is as wide reaching as John Plumtree. I suspect Greg Feek will assume a greater role than before and Paul O'Connell will be given a lot of input too.

It's no secret Paulie will do line out work. But like you say a lot of coaches will combine and cross over be it Feek in forwards Easterby in defence etc