Simon Easterby (born 21 July 1975 in

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa w ...

, North Yorkshire) is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

former

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player. He is currently the defence coach for the Irish national team.

Early life

Easterby's father is English and his mother Irish. He is the younger brother of Guy Easterby, also an Ireland international. He was educated at

Ampleforth College Ampleforth College is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in the English public school tradition located in the village of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1802 as a boys' school, it is situated in the groun ...

in North Yorkshire and was a member of St Hughs house.

Club career

Easterby captained the

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup (which ...

for five consecutive seasons and played more than 50 European games, 201 games (19 tries) for Llanelli and the Scarlets. He had been part of the West Wales region since signing from Leeds Tykes in 1999. In August 2010, Easterby was forced to retire through a knee injury at the age of 35.

International career

Ireland

Easterby made his first international appearance in a Six Nations victory over

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

Lansdowne Road Lansdowne Road Stadium ( ga, Bóthar Lansdún, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for ...

in 2000 and then became a regular in the side, being ever-present for the remainder of that Six Nations competition. Easterby then played in all three of the games during the summer tour but he missed all of the following season due to injury and did not return until the game against Scotland in September 2001. After Ireland's defeat, he lost his place but he did win a cap as a replacement against

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

in November 2001. In 2002 he played a part in the first ten of Ireland's games – eight as a starter – but after that, he lost his place and he did not return until playing in two Tests during the summer tour of 2003 against

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

and Samoa. He was virtually ever-present for Ireland since then; he has received in total 65 caps and scored 40 points. Described as the "elder statesman among Ireland's back-row options" in 2007, one newspaper suggested that " 007could well be Easterby's last Six Nations campaign" As it turned out, Easterby played in one more Six Nations Championship in 2008, after which he retired from international rugby to concentrate on his club career.

British & Irish Lions

Easterby received a call-up to the 2005 Lions tour to New Zealand, after Lawrence Dallaglio fractured his ankle in the first game of the tour. He forced his way into the Test team and covered himself in glory, including scoring a try in the second Test in Wellington. He took over the leadership duties for the 2005 Autumn series in the absence of injured duo

Brian O'Driscoll Brian Gerard O'Driscoll (born 21 January 1979) is an Irish former professional rugby union player. He played at outside centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster and for Ireland. He captained Ireland from 2003 until 2012, and captained the ...

and

Paul O'Connell Paul Jeremiah O'Connell (born 20 October 1979) is an Irish former rugby union player and coach. When he stopped playing, he was Ireland's third most-capped player (108) and the eighteenth most-capped international player in rugby union histo ...

. In total he has two British & Irish Lions caps.

Coaching

On retiring, Easterby was officially confirmed as the Scarlets new defence coach and signed a two-year contract with the region and in June 2012, Easterby was confirmed as the new head coach for the Scarlets, following the departure of Nigel Davies to

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

. His long association with the Scarlets came to an end in July 2014 when he was confirmed as Irelands new forwards coach, replacing the outgoing John Plumtree.

Personal life

Easterby is married to Sarra Elgan Rees, the daughter of ex-rugby union player Elgan Rees who played for

Neath RFC Neath Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Castell-Nedd) is a Welsh rugby union club which plays in the WRU Championship. The club's home ground is The Gnoll, Neath. The team is known as the All Blacks because of the team colours: black with onl ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

. Former Scarlets and Wales full back Matt Cardey was best man at the wedding. Sarra Elgan Easterby is a TV presenter and a fluent Welsh speaker. Their daughter, Soffia, was born in 2007, and their son, Ffredi, was born in 2009. In August 2014, Easterby was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

References

External links

Simon Easterby
IRFU {{DEFAULTSORT:Easterby, Simon 1975 births Living people English people of Irish descent Irish people of English descent Rugby union players from Harrogate Rugby union flankers Irish rugby union coaches Irish rugby union players Ireland international rugby union players Irish Exiles rugby union players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Ireland Scarlets players Scarlets coaches People educated at Ampleforth College