{"id":841931,"date":"2025-04-18T21:12:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T02:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/18\/simon-easterby-clears-the-air-on-wales-links-as-ireland-interim-head-coach-insists-all-guns-blazing-for-six-nations\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T21:12:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T02:12:01","slug":"simon-easterby-clears-the-air-on-wales-links-as-ireland-interim-head-coach-insists-all-guns-blazing-for-six-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/18\/simon-easterby-clears-the-air-on-wales-links-as-ireland-interim-head-coach-insists-all-guns-blazing-for-six-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Easterby clears the air on Wales links as Ireland interim head coach insists \u2018all guns blazing\u2019 for Six Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SIMON EASTERBY has addressed recent speculation linking him with the Wales head coach gig.<\/p>\n

The Ireland<\/a> interim boss has reportedly attracted interest from the Dragons following Warren Gatland<\/a>‘s sudden exit.<\/p>\n

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\"Simon<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

Simon Easterby has addressed links with Wales<\/span>Credit: Seb Daly\/Sportsfile<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\"24<\/a><\/p>\n

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Warren Gatland stepped down as Wales head coach in the middle of the Six Nations<\/span>Credit: Ramsey Cardy\/Sportsfile<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cardiff<\/span> coach Matt Sherratt\u00a0has succeeded Gatland on a temporary basis<\/a> and will be in charge for the visit of the reigning champions on Saturday.<\/p>\n

And speaking about being linked with the post on a permanent deal<\/a>, Easterby <\/a>insisted his focus was on the Six Nations, without explicitly ruling himself out.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old said: “”I didn’t really know I had been linked.<\/p>\n

“No, of course there\u2019s been speculation and that\u2019s what it is, speculation. I\u2019m not in control of that.<\/p>\n

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Read More on Six Nations<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

“I love what I do here. <\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve been int his position with the team for a long time and I\u2019m very fortunate with the people I get to work<\/span> with, both management and players, and for me it\u2019s a dream job.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeculation is exactly that, it\u2019s speculation, and not something that I can control.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now this is my only focus.<\/p>\n

“In a year\u2019s time, you could lose your job and we know in sport it\u2019s fairly fluid around people moving from thing to thing.<\/p>\n

“But, like I said, whatever is going on I\u2019ve had no contact with the WRU. <\/p>\n

\n

Crazy moment Scotland Six Nations star Pierre Schoeman wins six-figure sum in live TV giveaway and gives it all to his wife <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“For me, it\u2019s all guns blazing towards Cardiff on Saturday and make sure that me and the other coaches prepare the team, and whatever speculation goes on outside of that is outside my control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Easterby named his team for the trip to Wales<\/span> on Thursday after being handed a mini-injury crisis in the build-up.<\/p>\n

Caelan Doris<\/a>, Tadhg Furlong<\/a>, and Ronan Kelleher<\/a> were all ruled out of the game through injury.<\/p>\n

In response, Easterby has named Dan Sheehan<\/a> as captain for the first time<\/a>, with the Leinster hooker having come off the bench in the wins over England<\/span> and Scotland<\/span>.<\/p>\n

He is joined in the front row by Thomas Clarkson – making his first start for the national team – and\u00a0Andrew Porter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joe McCarthy makes his return from injury to partner\u00a0Tadhg Beirne<\/a>, while\u00a0Peter\u00a0O’Mahony joins\u00a0Josh\u00a0van der Flier and\u00a0Jack Conan<\/a>, the latter of whom comes into the starting line-up.<\/p>\n

Jamison Gibson-Park<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sam Prendergast<\/a>\u00a0retain their places in the starting XV at scrum-half and out-half, respectively.<\/p>\n

Jamie Osborne will make his\u00a0Six Nations<\/a>\u00a0debut at full-back, with\u00a0James Lowe<\/a>\u00a0and the returning\u00a0Mack Hansen<\/a>\u00a0lining up on the wings.<\/p>\n

Robbie Henshaw<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Garry Ringrose<\/a>\u00a0are the midfield pairing, with\u00a0Bundee Aki<\/a>\u00a0dropping to the bench.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the bench, Jack Boyle is in line to make his Ireland debut, while Gus McCarthy and Cian Prendergast could make their Six Nations bows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Andrew Ryan
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SIMON EASTERBY has addressed recent speculation linking him with the Wales head coach gig. The Ireland interim boss has reportedly attracted interest from the Dragons following Warren Gatland’s sudden exit. 2 Simon Easterby has addressed links with Wales Credit: Seb Daly\/Sportsfile 2 Warren Gatland stepped down as Wales head coach in the middle of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":841932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143291,1949],"tags":[143290,7870],"class_list":["post-841931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-easterby","category-simon","tag-easterby","tag-simon"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}