It should help that the new man has experience of the Irish game at the coalface – Ulster would be an instructive workstation for any man – so he will be arrested by the lopsided Irish rugby map.
Seemingly Humphreys plans, or hopes, to uplift the other three provinces without tearing down the rugby industry on Ireland’s east coast.
Ireland were very slow out of the traps on the whole business of catering for performance as well as participation, but Humphreys’ predecessor, David Nucifora, infused the role with potency.
The disparity is growing: Easterby’s 2025 squad features 23 players from Leinster, five each from Munster and Connacht, and three from Ulster.
He would namecheck players you’d never heard of, warming to the task as he mastered their pronunciations, building to a crescendo of doubt about Ireland’s chances of keeping things respectable.
