Interim Ireland coach Simon Easterby is being heavily linked with the Wales job and Saturday’s Six Nations clash between the sides could be the perfect job interview.
Come Saturday afternoon, Wales fans will be focussed on whether new interim coach Matt Sherratt can provide them with the spark that has been so sorely lacking during Warren Gatland’s second tenure and potentially salvage something from the wreckage of another Six Nations.
He played the vast majority of his club career for Scarlets, and their forerunner Llanelli RFC, is married to the estimable Sarra Elgan – one of the best rugby TV presenters in the UK, a fluent Welsh speaker and the daughter of Wales international Elgan Rees – and their family are based in Wales.
With Andy Farrell otherwise engaged on British and Irish Lions duty, Easterby has stepped up as Ireland head coach on a temporary basis for the duration of this Six Nations and the summer.
Yet while Sherratt concentrates on the here and now, Wales’s next permanent head coach may well also be strutting his stuff at Principality Stadium.
