WAS interim head coach Simon Easterby conscious there was a camera capturing his every reaction on Saturday and relaying some of them to the world?
The new Ireland gaffer smiled: “I am now!”
Easterby started chewing his pen and uttered a few expletives as Ireland trailed 10-5 to England at half-time, but was punching the air during the second period.
A 27-22 win over England that only looks close because of 12 very late points from the visitors was a great start for the long-time assistant as he adjusts to the spotlight.
Still, he would rather the focus was elsewhere.
Easterby said: “It’s not about me, it’s not, and I guess the team have been brilliant around the motivation of wanting to do something this year and kick on from the autumn.
“I’m part of that along with the other coaches, backroom and the other players. But I would be wrong to say that I wouldn’t be happy about the result.”
Andy Farrell — who will be back in charge next autumn, having stepped away to take charge of the Lions — also looked happy when he was shown on the big screen.
And why not? Ireland turned on the style in the second half to blow England away and earn a bonus point with a four-try salvo.
Easterby was annoyed at coughing up three touchdowns to England, with two coming in the final minutes.
But there was also so much to like as the attacking deficiencies that seemed to plague Ireland in November were gone, with some free-flowing moves leading to the scores.
James Lowe played a big part in three of the four, with passes to send over Jamison Gibson-Park, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan.
Easterby gushed: “He is a big-game player, he has that ability to make things from nothing. He had a nice feel in terms of a kicking game.”
Sheehan’s try was a beauty. The hooker passed like an out-half to Lowe before running a support line like a scrum-half to receive the return pass and score in the corner.
That Sheehan — with 11 tries in 28 appearances — got on the board was also something that pleased Easterby as his replacements made telling impacts, though the coach reckoned the starters softened up England.
The former flanker added: “I thought the guys who started laid a strong foundation and it wasn’t easy going, it was tough at times. The guys who came on benefited from the work that had been done in the first 50 to 60 minutes.
“The guys who came off the bench were brilliant, they really impacted the game, but the guys who started got through a lot of work.”
NEAR PERFECT
The foundations were laid in the set-piece, with Ireland near-perfect at scrum time and in the lineout.
Easterby continued: “I think we might have won nearly every lineout ball apart from maybe one.
“They gave us a lot of ball, which I didn’t expect. I thought they might keep the ball on the pitch a bit more. Our scrum and our lineout was excellent in terms of delivering good quality ball.”
And that allowed Ireland to attack.
He said: “We’d lots of opportunities, maybe we could have done better. But there were some good examples of set-piece plays, two, three phases which worked really well.
“And when the game broke up a little bit, we had guys who were able to take advantage.”
But it was not all good and Easterby stressed that improvement is needed for Sunday’s visit to Murrayfield to face an in-form Scotland.
He added: “Defensively we conceded a little bit of ground, they got behind us a few times, we have to make sure we’re stronger on that side of the ball.
“Scotland have many threats up front but in particular out wide and in the back row, they’re a really strong attacking team. We need to make sure we’re better without the ball next week.”
