Simon Easterby again speaks to Wales rumours as speculation continues

Simon Easterby said he has not been contacted regarding the Wales job and is committed to his role with Ireland.

The 49-year-old, who lives in Swansea and played for and coached the Scarlets, has been strongly linked with the vacancy since the departure of Warren Gatland.

Easterby guided Ireland to four wins from five and a Triple Crown during the Guinness Six Nations while permanent head coach Andy Farrell was busy preparing for the upcoming British and Irish Lions tour.

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He is due to continue as interim boss for summer fixtures against Georgia and Portugal, albeit recent reports suggest he could instead join Farrell with the Lions in Australia.

Wales ended the championship winless and with a second successive wooden spoon after Matt Sherratt replaced Gatland on a caretaker basis last month.

“I’m committed,” said Easterby. “I think when your name gets bandied around, that’s all it is, it’s just speculation. If I’d been contacted I’d tell you, but I haven’t. So, that’s the way it is at the moment.

“I love what I do. I’m very fortunate and it might be 15 minutes up the road (the Wales job) but I just feel very fortunate that I get the experiences I get to do this while Faz (Farrell) is away.

“I get to work with great people and how important that is. I’m pretty happy where I am.”

Ireland were on course for a historic third consecutive Six Nations title after beating England, Scotland and Sherratt’s Wales in the opening three rounds.

But their Grand Slam bid was derailed by a 42-27 demolition at home to eventual champions France and they ultimately finished third following Saturday’s nervy 22-17 win over Italy in Rome.

Easterby, whose regular position with Ireland is defence coach, played down talk of an anticlimax.

“When you lose the second to last game, it probably feels that way but if you lose the first game and you win the next four, it feels different,” he said.

“It’s just the nature of losing at home last week in a performance which we know we should have been better at.

“I guess we set out to do what we could to get five points (on Saturday). We could have got three or four more other tries and we didn’t.”

While a host of star names are set to be unavailable for Ireland duty in July due to Lions selection, Easterby suggested other senior players could be overlooked in a bid to develop greater squad depth.

“You might not take certain older players that maybe need a rest,” he said.

“It’s a chance to really expose as many players that we feel are still in the system but probably haven’t had the opportunity at the senior level.

“It’ll be about finding out about certain positions that we feel we need more depth in but also keep continually trying to keep exposing certain players that are already in the system.

“The tough thing about international rugby is that you get limited time to gain caps and experience.”