'Absolutely no doubt' - Humphreys backs Easterby

Irish Rugby Football Union performance director David Humphreys says he has "absolutely no doubt" about Simon Easterby as he prepares to lead Ireland in this year's Six Nations in head coach Andy Farrell's absence.

With Farrell having temporarily stepped aside to focus on leading the British and Irish Lions' tour to Australia this summer, Easterby has assumed interim head coach duties with Ireland.

Farrell has led Ireland to back-to-back Six Nations titles, and while Humphreys admits his influence will be missed, he feels the squad is in capable hands with Easterby, who has been part of Ireland's backroom team since 2014.

"With who Andy is and what he's achieved, of course any team is going to be, not necessarily weakened, but is going to miss the influence he had," Humphreys told BBC Sport NI.

"But on the other side, we have a very well-established coaching team. Simon Easterby has been around for a long time and he's known what has been the key ingredients of delivering success for the Irish team.

"So I have absolutely no doubt. Having listened to him speak to the team for the first time as they assembled today, he's in a really good space and that will certainly not be the reason for our team not performing."

Ireland come into the Six Nations after earning three wins out of four in November's Autumn Nations Series.

However, having opened the series with a disappointing defeat by the All Blacks, Ireland struggled to produce their best rugby in the wins over Argentina, Fiji and Australia.

"I think we'd all accept that the level of performance in the November internationals wasn't really where Ireland have been and where they'd expect to be," added Humphreys, who replaced David Nucifora as the IRFU's performance director last year.

"But I think you saw last weekend in European competition a lot of the players that are here performed really well in winning teams but even in the Munster performance [in defeat by Northampton], a lot of the players produced big games. We have players coming into form at the right time.

"The nature of the Six Nations is and always has been if you're off your game there's a risk in every game, but there's no question that France have been the most impressive throughout November and with [Antoine] Dupont back in [after missing last year's Six Nations to focus on Olympic Sevens preparation], that makes them very dangerous opposition."

As part of his role, Humphreys - who won 72 caps for Ireland and captained Ulster to the European Cup in 1999 - says he wants to return all four Irish provincial teams to the "top end of Europe".

Leinster, Munster and Ulster have all qualified for this season's Investec Champions Cup knockout rounds while Connacht have reached the last 16 in the second-tier Challenge Cup.

But while Leinster have played in each of the last three Champions Cup finals (losing all three), Ulster have not featured in a decider since 2012, Munster have been absent from the showpiece since winning the competition in 2008 while Connacht have not qualified since the 2021-22 season.

Leinster also provide the majority of players to the Irish national team, with 23 of Easterby's 36-man Six Nations squad selected from Leo Cullen's side.

Humphreys, however, does not believe such an imbalance will be "detrimental" for Irish rugby in the long run.

"For me, it's very simple: it's not about taking anything away from Leinster," he said.

"No business in the world we'd look at the strongest asset and say 'we have to take a bit away' to do something else.

"For me, it's about making sure that Leinster not just retain their status in European rugby but go on and win some European Cups, they've been so close.

"For the long-term success of Irish rugby, four competitive provinces, we have to get to that point."

During his time as Ulster's director of rugby, Humphreys recruited high-profile southern hemisphere players such as Ruan Pienaar, Johann Muller and John Afoa.

And with New Zealand's Jordie Barrett having starred in the early stages of his loan spell at Leinster, Humphreys says there is "huge value" in having established overseas internationals playing alongside homegrown players in Ireland.

"For me, the model is: top quality international players playing alongside top quality Irish players.

"That, to me, is not a solution but a way to make sure Irish rugby becomes stronger at all levels of the game."