It was far from perfect but Ireland, under the tutelage of Simon Easterby got their Six Nations championship off to a winning start on Saturday evening after they saw off England on a 27-21 scoreline.
Easterby who is temporally stepping up from the assistant head coach while Andy Farrell fulfils his British and Irish Lions duties must’ve feared the worst early on when England scored the game’s opening try through Caden Murley.
Jamison Gibson Park replied for Ireland midway through the opening stanza, but Easterby’s dream debut as head honcho still looked a long way off when the teams went into the sheds at the break with England leading by double scorers, 10-5.
But a blistering third-quarter knocked the wind out of England’s sail.
Ireland surged into a 27-10 advantage with further tries from Bundee Aki, Tadgh Beirne, Dan Sheehan. England did manage to cross the whitewash twice in the final minutes to put a bit of gloss on the scoreline on their way to a losing bonus-point, but by then, Ireland had the win firmly in the bag.
Sheehan was one of a number of second half substitutes that breathed new life into the Ireland attack as Jack Crawley and Jack Conan also put their hand up for a starting berth for next weeks clash with Scotland in Edinburgh.
“Yeah, you want that. You definitely want that,” said Easterby on the impact from his bench.
“It’s hard leaving players out of the fifteen. It’s hard to leave players out of the 23 because they are all good fellows and they all back the guys that get selected and it makes training competitive.
“But that’s what the national side should be about.
“We should have enough players to compete in every position and the guys that came off the bench; like I said, did a brilliant job. But the foundation was laid by some of the brilliant work the guys did up front in the first half.
“It wasn’t easy going. It was sticky at times. It was attritional and I think we benefited from that as we brought a few guys on as the second half went on.”
Running in four tries was another aspect that pleased Easterby but the concession of three tries is one area that the former Irish flanker is keen to see an improvement on as attention turns to Scotland next Sunday.
“I guess defensively we conceded a bit of ground. They got behind us a few times.
“So, certainly making sure we’re stronger that side of the ball would be one of my big focuses for this week.
“Scotland have many threats up front. But in particular out wide in the backline, they are a really strong attacking team so we need to make sure were better without the ball next week.”
Ireland can boost an unbeaten run against Scotland that stretches back as far as 2018. But regardless of such a winning run, Easterby expects another bruising battle similar to Saturday’s.
“It’s going to be no different in terms of the physicality and attritional nature of the game that we saw out here for the first 35, 40 minutes.
But also, they brought, under Gregor (Townsend), a huge amount of intent in their attacking play and they are a very good defensive team.
“They make it hard for teams to get momentum the way they stick in the tackle. They make it slow. But certainly, the way they attack and the way they approach the game is as good a anyone on their day.
“So, it will be a big week for us.”
