Simon Easterby

little173

Nice Article from David Kelly in Irish Inde.


http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/pride-and-guts-the-hallmarks-of-warrior-easterby-1971268.html

Always admired him greatly as a player, he was so solid and consistent, like a lot of great no.6 players, didnt get loads of credit. O'Connell used to talk of him as the defence leader on the pitch in the Triple Crown winning sides, and the guys he played with rated him really highly.

Sangre

"Does a lot of unseen work"

GTFO.

danthefan

Fantastic player in his day.

anonymous_joe

Was a year younger than Dallaglio. Must have been some backrow Ampleforth had.

irishbucsfan

He was a great player at times...

But what annoys me is when people say "he does the work you don't see" about anyone. The best flankers "do the work you don't see" but they also do the work you do see, and thats what makes them great. Ferris for instance does a hell of a lot of work around the ball to protect it, but he's also capable of breaking up the field with the ball with his electric pace, or put in a massive hit in defense.

Easterby was obviously a great leader for the Irish team according to POC and so obviously merited his place, but I don't know if he'd even be in the Irish match day squad these days.

anonymous_joe

irishbucsfan wrote: »

He was a great player at times...

But what annoys me is when people say "he does the work you don't see" about anyone. The best flankers "do the work you don't see" but they also do the work you do see, and thats what makes them great. Ferris for instance does a hell of a lot of work around the ball to protect it, but he's also capable of breaking up the field with the ball with his electric pace, or put in a massive hit in defense.

Easterby was obviously a great leader for the Irish team according to POC and so obviously merited his place, but I don't know if he'd even be in the Irish match day squad these days.

Stuff like defensive alignment, breakdowns, etc, are all harder to see. Watch rugby with people who don't follow it often and you'll notice that they only see breaks, and massive carries. (This isn't an indictment of them, I'm guilty of the same when at matches due to not being 20:20 :pac:)

The likes of Easterby's work around the fringes, in the ruck and in leading a defensive line are harder to see.

Lot of respect for someone who can carry so much damage through a game too. His face is completely different now than when he started as a rugby player.

Always came across as a gentleman and a model pro too.

thomond2006

..and he's got Sarra Elgan to go home to. :pac:

danthefan

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Easterby was obviously a great leader for the Irish team according to POC and so obviously merited his place, but I don't know if he'd even be in the Irish match day squad these days.

At his best he was a mile better than the current form of Leamy, not even a contest.