‘The Players Showed How Much The Jersey Means To Them’ – Easterby

When he was Ireland’s interim head coach last year, Simon Easterby said that the mark of this group is that ‘they always want to get better’. That is very much the case again as they look to follow up on their record-breaking performance against England.

Ireland tore up the script that had Steve Borthwick’s side bouncing back from a stinging Calcutta Cup defeat, as they put together a five-try display that was doused with a tactical smartness, a defiant intensity in defence, and an attacking spark that had been lacking during the first two rounds.

Andy Farrell’s men were back close to their clinical best, coming away with points from seven of their nine attacking 22-metre entries. Their 78% conversion rate is the highest of any team so far in the 2026 Guinness Men’s Six Nations.

The bar has been well and truly set for the rest of the tournament – with Wales and Scotland coming to Dublin over the next couple of weeks – and the year ahead, which includes the exciting Nations Championship series in both July and November.

The Six Nations’ rest week allowed the Ireland players a proper chance to celebrate such a pleasing result in Twickenham, but there is no sitting back from a squad that is continually seeking to improve what they put out on the pitch.

With silverware still to play for thanks to that 42-21 bonus point victory, Easterby said: “I don’t think it changes much in the sense that it was always about us, after the French result in particular, understanding what we needed to get better in that game and put that into practice at home, and then going away to Twickenham.

“I guess understanding, and the learnings from the French game, how we needed to perform on the road against a good team. I think on the whole, we did a pretty good job.

“There’s things in the game we’ve already reflected on that we can be better at, and I think that’s always been the mark of this team.

“That after good results and wins, we’ve probably dug a bit deeper into that performance and understood that for us to keep being the best that we can be, we need to keep getting better. That’s not been any different this week.”

With the TV cameras regularly panning to where they were positioned in Allianz Stadium’s West Stand last Saturday, and plenty of photos of them celebrating scores and big moments during the 80 minutes gracing social media, the Ireland coaching team were clearly living every moment of the match.

For Tests at home and abroad, Easterby and his fellow coaches are often tucked away in a coaches’ box, but being out in the open, close to the England coaching staff, and in front of dignitaries such as Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Taoiseach Micheál Martin, allowed them to get caught up in what was a brilliant atmosphere.

Like fellow assistant coach Jonathan Sexton beside him, the former Ireland and British & Irish Lions flanker was seen on his feet and punching the air as the visitors pulled clear on the scoreboard, racking up the most points an Irish team has ever scored at the south west London venue.

He said their instinctive reactions was ‘reflective of the performance so many players were putting in’, although that ‘you don’t know what you’re doing in those moments’ and that, in an honest admission given his seating position, there were ‘a few people around there of note that I wasn’t aware of’.

On how satisfying it was for both the performance and the result to come together, he remarked: “We’re pretty realistic in that, you know, we weren’t as bad as people were saying we were against France, even though we let ourselves down in a few areas.

“But then you’re not always as good as people think you are as well. So, having that ability to keep reflecting on some of the things that you said you were going to do. Have we done that as a team? Are we continually trying to get better in all areas of our game?

“And I think seeing some of the stuff that came out last Saturday in the performance was brilliant. It was emotional, it was exciting. You know, the players influenced the crowd, influenced the Irish element in the crowd.

“We’re obviously outside in Twickenham, so it made for a far more enjoyable experience as a coaching group, rather than being in a box. It obviously helps when you’re winning big moments which we did, (on) both sides of the ball.”

Easterby is the longest-serving current member of the Ireland senior coaching set-up, having first been appointed as forwards coach in 2014. He switched to defence coach five years ago, following Paul O’Connell’s addition to the group, and led the team to Triple Crown success last season during Farrell’s Lions sabbatical.

He has had a coaching contribution in four Six Nations title wins, including two Grand Slams, historic Test series victories in both Australia and New Zealand, and the drawn series with World champions South Africa in 2024. Not to mention his involvement with the Lions Down Under last summer.

Asked where this latest triumph in Twickenham ranks for him, he replied: “I think it would be right up there for me, in terms of performances. You don’t always get the result on the back of a performance, but obviously the result at the end of it was due to a lot of hard work that the players had put in.

“I think it was partly due to the slow start to the Six Nations that we felt like we hadn’t really been ourselves against France. We’d done pretty well against Italy, but we felt like there was more in us.

“I think there’s some sense of going to Twickenham, it’s a massive game, it’s not a place where you get a result easily. You’ve got to work for it, and I think the players showed that. They showed how much it meant to them to play in an Irish jersey.

“They wanted to perform and I think that was reflective in the way that they played, the way that they went after England, the way that they looked after each other, the way that they celebrated with each other.”

Six Nations Fantasy Rugby is back and bigger than ever with some amazing prizes to be won and an Irish Rugby Supporters league for you to join. Click here to sign up today!