Simon Easterby has clearer memories than most of Ireland’s Six Nations game against Wales at the Principality Stadium last year. Standing in while Andy Farrell organised his Lions squad for their Australian tour, Easterby was head coach against a Welsh team that caused Ireland some real problems. He expects as much again next Friday night at the Aviva Stadium.
Ireland won last year’s match 27-18, two weeks after beating Scotland at Murrayfield. It was a Wales camp in disarray, with head coach Warren Gatland having left his post by mutual agreement after the defeat to Italy, which made it 14 consecutive Test match defeats.
Next week, Wales arrive with the growing confidence of a team that were just minutes away from beating Scotland last weekend in Cardiff.
“Yes, it was tough,” said Easterby of last year’s Six Nations encounter. “I think we met them in the middle, didn’t we, when Gats (Gatland) left and they brought Matt [Sherratt] in as a caretaker. But I think they’ve got a really good coaching group that have gained confidence from last weekend’s performance.
“I know it didn’t deliver the result they would have liked, but they’ve got some strong carriers. Aaron Wainwright is probably carrying as well as any forward in the Six Nations at the moment, and often that’s on the back foot.
“But they get into your 22, they’re hard to defend against. They play with speed and they play with width. I thought [Sam] Costelow made a big difference to them on the weekend when he had front-foot ball.”
Easterby, an Ireland assistant coach, was speaking after the squad’s open training session in front of 5,000 fans at the Aviva Stadium on Thursday.
Ireland pull off one of the great Twickenham days against England
Wales are currently waiting to see if Costelow can play any part in next week’s match. The 25-year-old playmaker left the field in the second half of last weekend’s match against Scotland with an ankle problem, but he has remained with the squad to continue with the rehabilitation.
Wales will arrive in Dublin with just a few of the players who started against Ireland last year and with a different head coach in Steve Tandy. It’s an entirely different set-up, although Easterby can see some influences that are still there.
“I think there’s still some attacking structures that are similar with Matt Sherratt being involved,” he said. “But obviously, there’s different personnel in terms of players on the pitch.
“Certainly, the way they want to play when they get front-foot ball, the way they want to play to width and the way they attack, I thought [it] was some of their best rugby against Scotland.”
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell (centre) with assistant coaches Simon Easterby (left) and Andrew Goodman during Thursday’s open training session at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
The mood with Ireland is buoyant but cautious. At home after beating England by a record 42-21 score in Twickenham, there is a drive to keep the same levels up. There is also an urgency to not sit back and feel they have fixed the early championship problems.
“I guess one result against England in Twickenham, it doesn’t give us the right to sit back and reflect and enjoy that, because you know you’ve got another game coming up against Wales,” said Easterby.
“So, I guess our philosophy has always been to be really diligent around the fundamentals in our game and make sure that we keep honing those skills and keep mastering those skills in training to allow us to keep performing. We’ll need to get better again next week.
“It’s a different game, it’s a different team that we’re playing against. They’ve got different skill sets and they’ve got different threats to England. We need to make sure that we keep getting better ourselves.”
Wales’ other issue ahead of facing Ireland is knowing they will host Italy in Cardiff for their final match of the championship eight days later.
Bubbling underneath is concern that after Dublin, the wooden spoon could be up for grabs for the third consecutive time.
“There’s some different personnel but they have been very good in the 22 actually,” said Easterby.
“There have been five [Welsh] tries and four of them have come from tap penalties so they are really effective once they get into that part of the pitch. They are well coached and a proud group of players.”
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