Easterby: Now it’s time to flex our muscles
Frustrated Irish winger aiming to go on try binge
SIMON Easterby claims Ireland must shake off their hesitancy and take control of their World Cup destiny – starting with Samoa on Saturday.
Easterby believes a return to the Grand Slam winning form of 2018 is within reach as Ireland look for the performance in Fukuoka that will propel them into the quarter-finals with real momentum.
“We’ve got to back our skills,” admitted the Ireland assistant boss.
“But also get back to the fundamental things that have stood us in real good stead when we’ve played big teams, when we’ve played in tournaments and gone to places and won series.
“We haven’t stepped back, we haven’t been hesitant, we’ve gone in there and gone after a team – and I think that has to be the case this now. “We’ve seen it in patches (at this World Cup) but I don’t think we’ve seen it enough and that’s something that we’re aware of – but it’s something that is an easy fix as well.” Easterby added: “I certainly think that if we hit the ground running there’s no reason why we can’t continue that momentum through the rest of the tournament,” he said.
“But we have to be able to put those fundamental things in our game and get them right nearly every time.”
IRELAND need to score tries to guarantee their place in the World Cup quarter-finals and Jacob Stockdale is licking his lips at the prospect.
Yet to open his account on the world stage, Stockdale has only scored two tries in his past six games – both coming in Cardiff in the warm-up against Wales on August 31.
It’s surely only a matter of time for the prolific Ulsterman who has notched up 16 tries in his first 23 Test games.
Keith Earls (below) is Ireland’s record try scorer at World Cups with eight.
But, on form, Stockdale should be the man opposition defences are most wary of – and Ireland’s need for a bonus point win against Samoa on Saturday means attacking opportunities should be plentiful.
“Me and Earlsy have had a bit of a joke that neither of us has scored a try yet but to be honest, as long as we’re winning and we’re doing well I’m happy not to be scoring tries,” said Stockdale.
“It’s not something that bothers me”.
The 23-year-old added: “To be honest, it (chasing four tries) is not something I’ve really experienced yet.
“But you look at the way we won the Six Nations in 2015, we were away to Scotland and had to score as many points as we could – and we went out and killed it.
“This squad is perfectly capable of doing it. I’m looking forward it. I can’t wait.
“At the same time, the way that we’ll get that bonus point is by playing our game plan and doing what we do well.
“But there is that little change of mentality from just trying to get the win to trying to get as many tries as possible.
“Obviously we’d rather if it was secured by now, but it’s the nature of rugby. It’s really exciting to go into a weekend where anything can happen.
“All we can focus on is playing Samoa and doing the best we can against them – and then however the Japan-scotland game works out, we’ll see where we’re at.”
Stockdale is convinced that for all the doubts now surrounding Ireland’s ability to mix it with the tournament’s big guns, a big performance is within touching distance.
“There’s just a few things we need to sharpen up on,” he claimed. “I don’t think we’re at panic stations.
“There’s just the odd pass not going to hand or maybe we’re not making the right decisions.
“Those kind of wee one-to-two percent things are making all the difference. They’re really easy to fix.
“Whenever we’re switched on, there can be a dramatic change in a week.
“We know how we can turn that around pretty quickly. It’s not a huge foundational issue – it just needs a small bit of tweaking.”
It’s three years since Stockdale was playing in the under-20 World Cup.
Since then he played an instrumental role in Schmidt’s side securing the Grand Slam in 2018 – scoring crucial tries against Wales and England.
“It has come really quickly,” he acknowledged. “I just get on with my own game. You enjoy yourself.
“You can’t be worried that you haven’t played an awful lot of international rugby.”
What he learned from that Junior World Cup was that, with games coming thick and fast, physical recovery has to happen quickly.
“You need to get yourself right for the next game.
“And obviously in this tournament, it’s a wee bit longer in between games to get yourself right. But I’ve taken that into account this time around.”