News about Simon Easterby

Simon Easterby will take over as interim Ireland head coach during Andy Farrell's time in charge of the British and Irish Lions. Farrell is set to oversee autumn Tests against New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia in Dublin before temporarily departing his role to lead next year's Lions tour against the Wallabies. Defence coach Easterby will take control from December 1 and steer Ireland through the 2025 Guinness Six Nations and a subsequent summer tour, details of which are yet to be confirmed.

SIR CLIVE WOODWARD: For the first time in World Cup history, northern hemisphere teams dominated all the pools, bringing up four exciting quarter-finals. Ireland's draw in South Africa shows how absurd the draw is. Both these games will be deciding finals. Two big teams are likely to be disqualified, and there is a chance that the semi-finals will be made entirely of Six Nations teams. Here's my guide to the start of the knockout stages:

Ireland is confident that their team strength will be adequate to deal without missing lock Tadhg Beirne for the remainder of the Guinness Six Nations. The 31-year-old Munster star has been barred from playing for up to 12 weeks as a result of his ankle injury sustained during Saturday's 32-19 victory over France in Dublin. Lion Beirne, a British and Irish Lion who has been instrumental in his country's ascension to the top of the world rankings, has left the Aviva Stadium on crutches and was scheduled to have surgery on Thursday.