England's Toughest Start to Six Nations in 2025? New Irish Coach for Six Nations!

Steve Borthwick’s side showed some promise at the Six Nations with their turnaround performance, but English fans with Six Nations tickets are now finding out that 2025 is not going to be easy on the Red Roses.

England’s Lineup

The 2025 Six Nations fixtures have been revealed, and England’s road to potential glory is filled with formidable obstacles. Steve Borthwick’s team will face some of Europe’s most dominant sides, with their opener promising to be one of their greatest challenges – the defending champions.

Organizers expect this to be a sold-out show, with the highest sell-out of Six Nations tickets, but England must give its best.

England’s Toughest Start in Recent Memory!

England’s Six Nations campaign kicks off on Saturday, February 1st, 2025, with an away fixture against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin (KO 4:45 pm). This opening clash is anything but easy—Ireland has lost only twice in their last 41 games at home.

With the reigning champions boasting one of the most impenetrable home records, England must pull off something spectacular to secure victory. Playing away adds further pressure on England.

Full 2025 Six Nations Fixture List

Saturday, February 1st, 2025 – Ireland vs. England, Aviva Stadium, Dublin (KO 4:45 pm)

Saturday, February 8th, 2025 – England vs. France, Twickenham, London (KO 4:45 pm)

Saturday, February 22nd, 2025 – England vs. Scotland (Calcutta Cup), Twickenham, London (KO 4:45 pm)

Sunday, March 9th, 2025 – England vs. Italy, Twickenham, London (KO 3:00 pm)

Saturday, March 15th, 2025 – Wales vs. England, Principality Stadium, Cardiff (KO 4:45 pm)

With these fixtures, England is gearing up for an intense campaign. The next challenge awaits them just a week later, on February 8th, when they host France at Twickenham (KO 4:45 pm).

A victory here would lift the team’s spirits and set the tone for the rest of the tournament. On February 22nd, England will fight for the prestigious Calcutta Cup in a heated contest against Scotland (KO 4:45 pm), followed by a home game against Italy on March 9th (KO 3:00 pm).

Finally, the campaign concludes with what is expected to be a dramatic Super Saturday, where England will travel to Cardiff to take on Wales on March 15th (KO 4:45 pm).

Simon Easterby to be Ireland Head Coach

Simon Easterby is expected to be confirmed as Ireland’s head coach for the 2025 Six Nations in the next couple of weeks before he fulfills that role on the forthcoming Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa for a second time.

Andy Farrell will continue as head coach for the upcoming four-match Autumn Series against New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji, and Australia before taking a sabbatical at the turn of the year to prepare for leading the British and Irish Lions to Australia next summer.

As the most experienced Irish assistant, Easterby was always anticipated to take over as interim head coach for this season’s Six Nations.

Having been a player-coach towards the end of his career, Easterby stepped into coaching upon retirement in 2010 when he cut his teeth for two seasons as the Scarlets’ defense coach. He is also the only one of the Irish coaching ticket outside of Farrell who has been a head coach, having performed the top job with Scarlets for two seasons from 2012.

In what has proven to be something of a masterstroke looking back, Easterby was lured onto the Irish coaching ticket in the summer of 2014 as a replacement for John Plumtree. Over a decade later, he is still there.

After 6½ seasons as Ireland forwards’ coach with first Joe Schmidt and then Farrell, Easterby became defense coach in January 2021 when Paul O’Connell was co-opted onto the ticket.

Hence, this is his 11th successive season as part of the Irish coaching team after ten seasons as an Ireland international. He was capped 65 times during this time, dating back to his debut in the transformative 44-22 win over Scotland in 2000.

True to type, Easterby parked his ego and went to work assiduously to make the transition seamless. He readily concedes that it helps to have a head coach who has previously been a famed defense coach.

“It’s a huge part of this team,” Easterby once said of Ireland’s defense.

“It helps when the head coach is massively into defense and knows how important it is. It spreads through the group.”

Even so, in Easterby’s five championships as defense coach, Ireland conceded the joint-least tries in 2021 and had the best defensive record in the last three seasons, conceding just 27 tries overall.

By comparison, under renowned defensive guru Shaun Edwards, France has conceded 41 tries over the last four Six Nations, with Scotland on 50, Wales and England at 54 apiece, and Italy at 99.

In the ten campaigns, Easterby has been an assistant coach to Schmidt and Farrell, Ireland has won four Six Nations titles, including two Grand Slams.

Easterby led the 2022 Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa in Farrell’s absence, when assisted by O’Connell, Ireland scrum coach John Fogarty and the recently departed Mike Catt. The incoming Ireland backs’ coach, Andrew Goodman, will replace the latter for the Emerging Ireland tour at the end of this month.

To put this into context, Easterby will be just Ireland’s sixth head coach to lead the team in 28 championship editions since Warren Gatland replaced Brian Asthon after just one round of the 1998 Five Nations.

Including that one, Gatland oversaw four championship campaigns, Eddie O’Sullivan the next seven, Declan Kidney the next five, and Joe Schmidt six, with Andy Farrell in charge for the last five.

Such continuity reflects and contributes to Ireland’s much-improved performance on the pitch since the turn of the millennium, and the last three head coaches have all presided over Grand Slam campaigns.

Since late, the Irish fans with Six Nations tickets have received great praise for their IRFU, commending their plan and long-term vision. They concluded that the World Cup did not go in their favor, but it set the team up to be a superior heavyweight in the next few years.

Other interim head coaches have been in place since the turn of the millennium. Michael Bradley filled the role for the 2005 two-test tour to Japan and the two-test tour to New Zealand and Australia in 2008, while Les Kiss led the Irish team on their two-test tour of the USA and Canada in 2013.

But Easterby will be the first to do so for a Six Nations.

Farrell will be a tough act to follow as Ireland seeks to become the first team to win three outright championship titles in a row. Easterby will, therefore, hope that he can emulate Rob Howley, who led Wales to the 2013 Six Nations title when Gatland took a sabbatical from coaching Wales.

Against that, Wales finished fifth under Howley in 2017, when Gatland took a full 10-month break from coaching Wales for his second tour as Lions head coach.