Easterby became a legend in Welsh club rugby, but he also forged a pretty decent career in green.
Having turned down Clive Woodward’s invitation to play for England, he chose Ireland. He won 65 caps, and by the time he announced his retirement on St Patrick’s Day in 2008, he was the country’s most-capped flanker.
He made his debut against Scotland in the 2000 Six Nations, one of five new faces – alongside Ronan O’Gara, Peter Stringer, Shane Horgan and John Hayes – introduced by Ireland boss Warren Gatland in a shake-up after a 50-18 thumping by England.
Easterby played the full game, which Ireland won 44-22, and was retained at blind-side flanker for the remainder of the championship.
He wasn’t always a guaranteed starter, though. At the 2003 World Cup in Australia, he was on the fringes of Eddie O’Sullivan’s side, but became a success story in an otherwise familiar tale of Irish woe that ended in a quarter-final exit.
From there, Easterby became one of O’Sullivan’s most trusted on-field lieutenants.
“He was a physical and powerful athlete, as you’d expect from a back row, but you could see he was one of the smarter ones,” says Chris Henry, one of Easterby’s successors in the Irish back row.
“He was part of that class back-row era with Denis Leamy, David Wallace and Neil Best.”
Two years after the World Cup, O’Sullivan handed him the captaincy for the 2005 autumn series following injuries to Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell.
That was an especially big year for him. In addition to seizing his Lions chance – which came after fellow Ampleforth College alum Lawrence Dallaglio’s injury – he also married Sarra Elgan Rees, the television presenter and daughter of former Wales international Elgan Rees.
