SIMON EASTERBY SAYS talk of Andy Farrell potentially moving on as Ireland head coach next year is not proving a distraction in the Ireland camp.

Farrell has been linked with a return to his old club Saracens, where he spent time as a player and coach, when his contract expires following next year’s World Cup in Australia.

Today, The Irish Independent reported that IRFU performance director David Humphries is set to meet with Farrell’s representatives this week to discuss his future plans.

Farrell’s Ireland squad trained with the Ireland U20s in an open session at Aviva Stadium today, where just under 5,000 supporters were in attendance.

After the session, assistant coach Easterby spoke to the media and said any talk of Farrell moving on hasn’t entered the Ireland camp.

“We haven’t (discussed it),” Easterby said. “No.”

Farrell joined Joe Schmidt’s coaching ticket as defence coach in 2016, before taking over from the New Zealander in 2019.

Before this Six Nations kicked off, The 42 asked Farrell about his enthusiasm for the job and the challenge of keeping his messaging fresh after 10 years as part of Ireland’s coaching team.

“It doesn’t get any more privileged than I am to do the job that I love,” Farrell said.

“I love coaching this team. I’m the lucky one. As always, I love my job. I’m unbelievably lucky to be doing what I do.”

Farrell’s stock remains sky-high, with Ireland chasing a Triple Crown in their upcoming home games against Wales and Scotland.

Ireland recovered from a disappointing start to their Six Nations campaign, losing away to France, by overcoming Italy in Dublin before last weekend’s statement success against England in Twickenham – one of the standout team performances during Farrell’s time in charge.

Today, Easterby said that Twickenham showing was in part a reaction to the under-performance in Paris. 

“I think it was partly due to the slow start to the Six Nations, we felt like we hadn’t been ourselves against France,” Easterby said.

Easterby with Ireland boss Andy Farrell and attack coach Andrew Goodman. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“We’d done pretty well against Italy, but we felt there was more in us, and I think there is some sense of going to Twickenham, it’s a massive game, it’s not a place where you get a result easily, you have to work for it, and I think the players showed that and showed how much it meant to them to play in an Irish jersey.

“They wanted to perform, and I think that was reflected in the way that they played, the way that they went after England and the way that they looked after each other, the way that they celebrated, and I think it will be right up there for me in terms of performances.

“You don’t always get a result on the back of a performance but obviously the result at the end of it was due to a lot of hard work that the players had put in.”

This weekend is a fallow week for the Six Nations, with Ireland back in action at home to Wales next Friday night.

“I guess one result against England in Twickenham, it doesn’t give us the right to sit back and reflect and enjoy that, because you know you’ve got another game coming up against Wales who performed really well against Scotland,” Easterby added.

“I guess our philosophy has always been to be really diligent around the fundamentals in our game and make sure that we keep honing those skills and keep mastering those skills in training to allow us to keep performing, and we’ll need to get better again next week.

“It’s a different game, it’s a different team that we’re playing against. They’ve got a different skill set, and they’ve got different threats to England. We need to make sure we stay on top of that.”