Simon Easterby: 'There's no pressure is there!'

Interim Ireland head coach Simon Easterby has insisted past performance counts for very little as his team go in search of a historic three-peat of Six Nations titles.

Having gone back-to-back in 2023 and 2024, the former back-row international has been tasked with filling the shoes of Andy Farrell, who has been appointed as head coach of the British and Irish Lions for this summer’s tour to Australia.

Farrell is the most successful Ireland coach in the professional era and Easterby, his right-hand man during a hugely successful period for the Irish national team, is under no illusions about the task ahead of what promises to be a very open championship.

“There is no pressure is there!” he chuckled at the launch of the 2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations media conference in Rome.

“I don’t think there is a huge change other than obviously Faz not being with us. But we have had consistency of selection this time around.

“We have got good youngsters coming in, we brought them in during the Autumn, and there is a lot of experience in the group as well.

“The challenge is to stay ahead of the pack and prepare as well as we can and try and play as well as we can when it comes to England in 10 or 11 days’ time.

“It is tough because every team in this competition will believe they can win it, and rightly so. There are so many good teams in it.”

Given they are double defending champions and have their nearest rivals in the bookmakers’ odds, England and France, at home this time around, Ireland are seen as the team to beat.

But Easterby has been around long enough to know that things don’t always pan out as planned.

He said: “It’s about on the day, and I guess part of winning the Six Nations is about momentum and what has gone before doesn’t account for huge amounts.”