EXCLUSIVE: 'I didn’t feel I could really influence what was going on' - Easter
Nick Easter had no idea he would be celebrating his 40th Birthday with a braai in Durban as he launches a new chapter in his rugby career with the Sharks.
What makes the celebration even more surreal is the presence at the party of former England teammates Joe Worsley and Luke Narraway and ex-England skills coach Rory Teague who are in Durban with the Top 14 Bordeaux Begles team they coach.
Easter expected to be in London, helping Harlequins prepare for the new Gallagher Premiership campaign but left the club on July 24 as the third coaching change following the arrival of Paul Gustard as the new head of rugby.
Easter played 54 times for England and wore the Quins jersey for 12 seasons and it was a natural move for him to become the defence coach. That role lasted for just two years with Quins disappointing Premiership campaign ending with John Kingston departing as director of rugby followed by forwards coach Graham Rowntree and Easter last month.
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While Kingston and Rowntree have yet to reappear on the rugby scene, Easter has been given the opportunity to help the Sharks in their Currie Cup campaign having been invited to Durban by head coach Robert du Preez. Easter will be the team’s breakdown coach and will also assist Braam van Straaten with defence and skills coach Jaco Pienaar with the lineouts during the tournament.
Easter played for the Villagers club in Cape Town during his early career, his Mum is South African and his great-grandfather, Pieter Le Roux, played for the Springboks. His close connection with the country means he is relishing being part of the Currie Cup competition.
However, first, he has to negotiate the Birthday party the Sharks have arranged and said: “We had a community coaching clinic along with Bordeaux who are here on a pre-season trip and I met up with Worzel (Joe Worsley), Luke Narraway and Rory Teague and will have a few tonight! Durban is the place to be at the moment because we play Bordeaux on Friday night and then the Springboks take on Argentina the next day. There is a lot of rugby in town!
Thanks for all the birthday messages. One more year till…… not fooling anyone! Just beginning! 🎉🍻🥂.
— Nick Easter (@nick_easter) August 15, 2018
“I greeted Worzel with “Melon” and he swung around and said “no one calls me that in this French team.” I left Quins last month and had been planning do some coach development and there were some offers to coach at lower levels in England which was great.
“I wanted to make a decision that would develop me as a coach and give me the best opportunity to learn and that was to come down to Durban. I explained my situation to Rob du Preez and said I didn’t want to tread on anyone’s toes. I put it to him and he thought was a great idea and here I am.
“It was key to get into coaching as soon as possible and it is great to be back involved with a team that wants to achieve success. Northern Hemisphere coaches, for various reasons, don’t come down South very often and to be able to come here is a great opportunity.”
Easter acknowledges that the arrival of Gustard, who was England’s defence coach, had obvious ramifications for his role while at Quins and he spoke to the new head of rugby about the situation. “Guzzy always has done defence,” explained Easter. “I said that if he wanted me to stay then I would be happy to stay. It is a big boy’s game and I understand what it’s about. Coupled with the frustrations I had last season when I didn’t feel I could really influence what was going on as much as I would have liked, made me think the best decision would be to experience a new environment. As a result I am in Durban on my 40th.
“I love doing defence and I am helping out here at the Sharks but if you want to become the best coach possible then you have to understand all elements of the game.
“To become the best defence coach you have to know about attack and the same if you want to be the best attack coach you need to know about the defence. I loved all elements of the game and like to think I wasn’t a one-trick pony. Rugby fascinates me because it is a decision-making game.”
One decision that Easter has already made is that his first child – wife Kerry is five months pregnant – will be born in London and while she will be travelling out shortly to spend time in Durban, the family will be in England for the birth. “With the little one coming along we will have to look at things going forward:” added Easter.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments