Easterby retires from International rugby.

toomevara

Good Servant, left it a little late though, should have gone post WC..(it's Simon by the way...)

dc69

good player,got alot of stick that wasnt seserved imo,he didnt have to represent Ireland but did and hopefully people who meet him along the way will express thanks

Great player etc but shoulda left before the 6n

MikeHoncho

Cheers for all the hard work Simon. He had few cracking seasons but should have retired at the world cup.

vorbis

Very good player in his day. Had some smashing games for Ireland during our purple patch.

GreenHell

Great player in his day, stayed on about a season to long.

Eoin

From rugby.ie:

The 33-year-old, who played in every game of Ireland's Six Nations campaigns between 2004 and 2007, is Ireland's most capped back-row forward

I never realised quite how often he played - that's an impressive record when you consider the likes of Anthony Foley who seems to have been around since year dot.

Sangre

Great servant. Hopefully the last season or so doesn't tarnish his record too much.

Spaceman Spiff

Definitely should have retired after the World Cup. But he was a great player, considering how bad most of the players have been for the past 8 months I'm not going to hold it against him.

Eoin

Bear in mind that these guys aren't on mega bucks, so it's not just a decision of their pride when they should retire from International rugby.

Shan75

I must say I have been a bit of a critic of his for a while but I also acknowledge that he had some fine performances over the years for Ireland and the Lions.I feel he left it a bit late but he was probably persuaded to stay on after the world cup by Eddie.I wish him nothing but good luck for the remainder of his club career and whatever he does afterwards.

dub_skav

Shan75 wrote: »

I must say I have been a bit of a critic of his for a while but I also acknowledge that he had some fine performances over the years for Ireland and the Lions.I feel he left it a bit late but he was probably persuaded to stay on after the world cup by Eddie.I wish him nothing but good luck for the remainder of his club career and whatever he does afterwards.

Not sure of the source but I though he had decided to retire post WC and Eddie persuaded him to stay on.
Great player, got a lot of stick early on for being related to his brother, but once he made it on his own merits he never looked back.
Nice fella too.

gcgirl

I wish him the best and like a few others i thought he should have retired after the WC ! And he did play some great rugby when he was in form plus he also came across as a sound guy in interviews!

razorblunt

Ya a season too long, but you cant fault his efforts for the cause. Hopefully he will be remembered for playing his way into the Lions Test games in 05 after initially not being picked as well.

tHE vAGGABOND

He did actually retire after the world cup - but eddie talked him into coming back for 1 more season

athtrasna

I've been fairly outspoken about Easterby this 6N and did think he should have gone sooner - BUT the guy played out of his skin on Saturday and I'm glad that that's the last memory I'll have of him in a green shirt.

He served us well - time to move on now. Happy Retirement Simon!

An Tarbh

I've never been a fan of his from the get-go, no doubt he had his good games but I'm still convinced we always had better options but Eddie's obsessive fetish with him got him more caps than he deserved. Glad to see him gone.

gjim

That's a tough and, in my opinion, unfair assessment, Tarbh. There's always been lively debate about backrow choices and options which is generally arranged along provincial lines; because he played in Wales he never had the cheerleaders among Ireland fans like any of the provincial backrows. He is as highly regarded by Scarlet fans as any backrow is regarded in Ireland. He has had monster games for Ireland.

Eoin

An Tarbh wrote: »

Glad to see him gone.

I'm sure he'll miss the Irish fans too.

nacho libre

A great player for Ireland. I hope he enjoys some more club success before he finishes playing rugby.

hardCopy

Hard worker and a bit of an unsung hero a lot of the time. I wish him all the best.