After coming so close so many times under Stuart Lancaster, Eddie Jones delivered England not just a Six Nations title, but a Grand Slam on his first attempt.
During Lancaster’s reign, England found themselves runners-up four years in a row – missing out on the championship on points difference the last three times.
Following a disastrous World Cup campaign which saw the hosts eliminated after just three games, Lancaster and the RFU parted ways and Jones was given the job off the back of his success with the Japanese national team.
England – like all national sides in a post-World Cup year – began a transition, with older players being pushed out in favour of the next generation. One such player to find himself out in the cold was the 37-year-old Nick Easter.
The Harlequins number eight has been impressed by what he has seen so far from Eddie Jones and his new coaching team, having brought England back from their World Cup failure to claim the 13th Grand Slam in their history.
Speaking at the launch of EA SPORTS UFC 2, Easter says: “A lot of those boys were involved in the World Cup disaster, and I think they just couldn’t wait to put that right. What you need is someone at the helm who is prepared to not suffer any fools, to put rugby first and get the very best out of an England side, which hasn’t happened for a number of years.
“For 12 years, England have had some good times, some good wins but they’ve never really achieved their full potential consistently. Jones made no bones about it, he said ‘Look, you can talk all you like about culture, but winning brings culture, so I want to win it’. Which is why he picked his most experienced side, why he made Dylan [Hartley] captain.”
While a Grand Slam is a fantastic achievement, to win one in a transitional, post-World Cup year means that there will always be question marks attached. But Easter is backing his former team-mates to make it count in the long-run.
“They’re the the 13th side to win a Grand Slam, so they’ve got their place in history and rightly so,” he says. “They were the best team throughout the competition, as predicted. Under the new coach, they were always going to get better as the tournament progressed.
“Yes, we know that the quality of Six Nations wasn’t what it’s been before, but you can only beat what’s in front of you. They’ve done that, and it’s hard to win a Grand Slam. That’s been proven in the past, as England have struggled for 13 years.
Will they be remembered as one of the greats? If they back it up, yes. If they kick on, which I expect them to with the talent they’ve got and the coaching staff they’ve got and the belief they all now have after winning such a treasured prize that’s eluded them for so long. I think they will press on and can be remembered as one of the greats.”
Under Lancaster, Easter had already seen his role diminished, but still impressed when called upon. When Billy Vunipola was injured during the World Cup, Easter came in against Uruguay in England’s final pool game and became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in World Cup history.
Easter believes the man he deputised for that night went on to become the driving force behind England’s first Grand Slam win since 2003, and should have been named player of the tournament ahead of Stuart Hogg.
“I think Billy’s been playing well for a couple of years in the Six Nations. Last year I came back into the squad and me and Billy were the two number eights…and it was the first time Billy was playing 80 minutes. I thought he was superb in last year’s Six Nations.
“Last year he turned into an 80-minute player and he’s just carried on that form, in fairness. Even in the World Cup, I know England blew a 10-point lead with 15 minutes to go [against Wales] but it did coincide with him going off. You could say that he was having a pretty good game around that time.
“It’s easy to say that he’s got three man-of-the-matches so he’s probably the player of the tournament, but he’s actually been pretty destructive like that for quite a while for England. I think the real test for him will be on the hard tracks in Australia. If Australia pick a similar back-row of Hooper and Scott Fardy, it’s a very different balance to the back-row than you usually find and how he operates there will develop him even more.”
At just 23-years-old, Vunipola is part of an exciting new generation of English talent. All of Maro Itoje, George Ford, Jonathan Joseph, Owen Farrell, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Manu Tuilagi, Anthony Watson and Jack Nowell are under the age of 25, and Easter is backing them to do some real damage for England in the near future.
“The game’s getting younger anyway, so you don’t get the rabbit in the headlights situation of a 21-year-old playing because of the professional nature of the big games they’re involved in with their club, with the fact they play in the U-20s World Cup and that gets quite a lot of exposure.
“But it’s really exciting. And let’s not forget Stuart Lancaster’s part in it. He blooded a lot of these guys, knowing full well he was always up against it in terms of the experience of going to win a World Cup because he was never going to achieve it.
“But these guys now – is it only Jason Leonard that’s got 100 caps for England? There’s probably a few in there, a few 100-cappers that are going to be around for a long time, even given the strength of English rugby.”
Nick Easter took on the Finish the Fight Challenge to mark the launch of EA SPORTS UFC 2. EA SPORTS UFC 2 is out now on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Find out more at easports.com/uk/ufc
