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How Nick Easter is juggling Test and club rugby
By Chris Jones
Former England captain Nick Easter enjoys a challenge, which is why he is currently helping the USA Eagles prepare for their crucial Pacific Nations Cup clash with Canada in Los Angeles while also masterminding Chinnor’s preparations for their debut in the English Championship despite being 5,413 miles away.
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Easter is the Chinnor director of rugby and guided them into the second division of English rugby in one of the feel-good stories of last season while also operating as the Eagles defence and forwards coach under Scott Lawrence, the new head coach. Easter was with the Eagles for the losses to Romania and Scotland earlier in the summer before jetting back to Chinnor to map out the pre-season schedule for a club made up of players who hold down jobs in the week and play rugby at the weekend.
The former England and Harlequins No.8 then flew back to the West Coast for the Eagles training camp and after the Canada game, Easter will fly to Japan to face Eddie Jones’s team before heading back to Chinnor for the build-up to the opening Championship game away at Cambridge.
So, how does he juggle his roles? “We started off in June and I did the first week of pre-season at Chinnor and set the tone and how the sessions were going to run then I was away for two weeks when the USA played Romania and Scotland and the coaches at Chinnor carried the torch very well in that period and then I was back for a month.
“For this month, the coaches are holding the fort and have worked with me for a year-and-a-half and understand how the sessions run and the messaging. Coupled with that is an opportunity for the senior players at Chinnor to take more ownership and accountability and I have allocated each of them an area of responsibility. We also now have an analyst who films training so I can watch and review each session including our first pre-season match. It means I am not in the dark on the other side of the world and filming training is a huge benefit to the players this season.
“Being able to coach both the USA players and Chinnor means I do have that balance in my work life because I learn from both and it helps me grow as a coach. I signed with Chinnor in December 2022 and around February/March my agent told me the USA were looking for a defence and forwards coach under a new coach and I thought it was a great opportunity to coach at international level.
“I won’t be missing any Championship matches and will be back in the week of the opener against Cambridge. If we beat Canada we have another three games in the PNC and if we don’t then there are two more matches. I am with the Eagles for the next two and then I will be back for the Tuesday training before that first Championship game. Scott always asks how things are going and how available I am for the Eagles and the board at Chinnor understand the situation and I love my work at the club. Myself and both parties benefit and it is a happy balance.”
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Having already put together an impressive coaching CV working with Harlequins, Newcastle Falcons and Worcester Warriors in England and the Sharks in South Africa, Easter, whose young family are based in Cheltenham, has ambitions to see how far he can go in this “second” rugby life. By adding international experience with the Eagles, the 46-year-old is hoping other opportunities will arise and said: “I am ambitious and being in charge of a Premiership club or coaching my country – I would love to do that. I want to go as far as possible.”
For now, the main challenges are preparing the Eagles who are without their European-based players for the Canada match including Bristol’s AJ McGinty, and finding a way for Chinnor to compete in what Easter sees as a three-tier Championship made up of professional teams, those who have the ability to call in Premiership players to boost their squad and clubs like his own who make do with what they can deliver with limited resources.
Easter added: “The MLR here in the US was a better standard this season but there are still some bad habits when they transfer to Test matches and we found that out in July against Romania and Scotland and it is up to the coaches to make sure the players don’t fall foul of the referee. This game with Canada is huge with the Northern American rivalry and a lot of the guys face each other in the MLR. If we want to have a shot at winning the PNC we need to beat Canada.
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“Canada beat Romania and we were expected to beat them in July and we have had a two-week build-up and the hard work has been done. The game is still about the basics and there are eight or nine new players in the Eagles squad compared to July and they have had to get up to speed very quickly.
“In terms of that first game with Chinnor, we know that Cambridge have had a year in the Championship and they have recruited strongly. It is a fixture both teams want to win to get a good start and with the season being broken up with both of us being left out of the Premiership Cup you have to hit the ground running. I have really enjoyed working out the recruitment because we are not on a level playing field in the Championship.
“There are four full-time clubs in the league and four who have long-standing relationships with Premiership teams and load their side with academy players; Hartpury and Gloucester, Ampthill and Saracens, Bedford and Northampton and London Scottish and Harlequins. The majority of my players work full-time and clock off on a Friday and there will be different energy levels compared to a player who is full-time.
“Therefore I have signed eleven players and the oldest is 25 because those guys are unlikely to have family commitments, only a handful will have full-time jobs which means they can train more and will have time to recover. We still operate with two senior teams and are a community club and I feel strongly about this because we all know clubs have been struggling to put out sides and I don’t want to deter anyone from joining.”
While extending the Eagles’ PNC campaign is clearly the aim at Test level, what is Easter’s target for Chinnor in their debut season in the Championship? “While not finishing bottom would be a success I prefer to be a bit further up the table. Ourselves, Cambridge, Caldy and Nottingham are in the same boat in that we don’t get anything handed to us by Premiership clubs and we can make that a mini-league. I am very aware of how strong Nottingham have been and Caldy have experience in the league but if we play to what our DNA is at Chinnor and are in every game with 20 mins to go then that is success to me.”
