There is an obvious void when any team loses the presence of Andy Farrell, but Simon Easterby has been a head coach at Scarlets before, so he would have been well aware in the changes to his day-to-day for this campaign. Simon is a terrific coach - someone that, as a player, you want to put in a big performance for.
It was interesting to watch Farrell on The Late Late Show over here recently. He was asked about the jump from assistant to head coach, having been assistant under Joe Schmidt, then taken the reins himself. He said what surprised him was how much of a change it was in his day-to-day responsibilities: now it was only 20% coaching, and 80% managing all the players (those who are picked and those who aren’t), the staff, and then obviously the IRFU behind the scenes.
Playing England at the Aviva Stadium is a great match for concentrating the mind going into the 2025 Championship. There’s something a bit different about England at home for Irish people.
Losing at Twickenham last year would have stung, because Ireland have been so good at winning those close matches. England had a really good first half, then Ireland came out in the second half and got two early tries. Nine times out of ten they’re kicking on there and building a bit of a score, but England stuck in there, and fair play to them.
I played in a lot of those games where you have a great first half, then the other side comes out in the second half and ten minutes later you’re losing and wondering, ‘What happened there?’ That’s a tough one to navigate mentally, so the fact that England did that was even more impressive to me than the fact they got the win.
There are a lot of interesting complexities in this year’s tournament, and that’s before you throw in the added ingredient of a Lions tour coming up. The Ireland players are in pole position for that tour, but rugby changes a lot in a week, never mind across an eight-week tournament.
One sub-plot will play out at the Aviva Stadium this weekend: Caelan Doris v Maro Itoje. Both are new to the captaincy, but if you were talking about a Lions leader, Caelan has the advantage. I predicted last year before he was captain of any team that he would lead the Lions because I’ve been around him and seen his natural leadership qualities.
Caelan is that new-age sort of captain: very calm and technical, speaks very thoughtfully and leads by example every week. He tends to top all the statistical lists, whether that be tackles or turnovers, and you frequently get a huge performance out of him.
As for Itoje, I used to think from the outside looking in that he was linked to the captaincy purely because he was a class player. A lot of the time that doesn’t really work, but he’s now a very experienced man, captaining his club since Owen Farrell left for France. Itoje’s coach at Saracens is Mark McCall, and he wouldn’t just make a fella captain because he’s a great player and he can play 80 minutes.
McCall is an Ulsterman who played for Ireland, and I’d be shocked if behind the scenes he wasn’t being asked if he’d ever consider putting his name in the hat for the national coaching job. When Saracens were winning those Champions Cups and league titles, they were the best team I ever played against. They formed the core of the England team which won Championships and Grand Slams under Eddie Jones. They just did not let you breathe at all. It was incredible.
There’s so much respect for McCall in Ireland, but he seems like he’s part of the furniture at Saracens; one of those rare instances where the coach stays in one club his entire career and rides the different cycles and rebuilds. But I’m sure if an interesting international coaching job came his way, if he was going to make that jump, he’d be more than capable of doing it. Like with Simon Easterby and the Ireland lads, by all accounts those Saracens players absolutely love McCall, both professionally and personally.
One of McCall’s old teammates with Ulster, David Humphreys, is the IRFU’s performance director. He spoke earlier in the week about an overreliance on Leinster, that “our system isn’t working” if we’re leaning too much on one province. When Ireland named their squad for this Championship, 23 of the 36 players were from Leinster. It’s a complex issue, and there are two different ways to look at it.
Needless to say, most young guys coming through the provincial sub-academies and academies want to make it to the first team. At the moment, if you manage to get into the matchday 23 at Leinster, you’re pretty much in the national team. Iron sharpens iron: from an early age, these young players in the Dublin area are competing in really strong teams and have access to professional-level coaching and S&C. That’s been the school system by design for many years, and that’s why Leinster are the envy of many across the world in the way they produce such a high number of quality players year on year.
My opinion is that if you leave Leinster, it’ll either make you or break you. It can push you on massively to become a really good player for an Ulster or a Munster, and that’s how you then get into Ireland. There are only a few guys who’ve left Leinster over the last decade or so who’ve actually kicked on. I joined Munster from there in my early 20s after a difficult period with injury, and it was the making of me.
On the flipside, a lot of people go to a different province and find themselves in a similar-ish spot to the one they just came from. They move away from Leinster to get international recognition and it hasn’t happened, and then they’ve lost it in both ways. It all comes down to the person, what their ambitions are and what they’re willing to sacrifice to try and realise them.
I am fascinated by how the mind works and the impact it has on our professional performance and human experience. That is why I created 5X Flow. To help elite athletes and corporate professional's pursue their potential.. I have also taken on a Professional Doctorate out of the University of Limerick in Human Performance and Innovation. I’ve been working with a few of the Munster and Ireland guys over the last couple of months and loving it. The quality of your mind is the quality of your life.
If you work hard in the gym, you’ll be able to lift heavier weights; if you run hard on the pitch the GPS data will back that up, The mental side? It’s not as measurable, but I believe it is even more important. If you commit and invest in it, over time you will see a material and lasting impact in your performance output.
You look at the best players and, yes, they’re physically talented and skilful, but the ones who play at the top for a long time and just keeping getting better are the ones who take their mental game really seriously.
Ireland are chasing an unprecedented 3rd Championship in a row. It certainly won’t be smooth sailing with a fiery England up first and a very tough trip to the Scots away in Edinburgh next week. Can we do it? Of course we can, but I expect this to be a tournament to go down to the wire.
Former Munster winger Andrew Conway scored at least one try in 10 of his 30 Tests for Ireland (15 tries in total), with Ireland recording a 100% win rate when he got on the scoresheet.
