Having originally been left out of England’s 31-man World Cup squad, Harlequins number eight Nick Easter has been called to replace the injured Billy Vunipola.
With the Aviva Premiership kicking off on October 16, the 52-times capped England international sat down with JOE to talk about the challenges of the season ahead.
With Harlequins missing players at the World Cup, how does that affect your preparations for the new Premiership season?
It hasn’t affected them. We always knew we’d be without them for the autumn internationals and the Six Nations before, and we’ve made some really good signings this year. We’ve got six new guys – a few of them are still at the World Cup – and it’s exciting things.
We’ve had some guys who have had a really good pre-season and there’s a really good buzz about the place. We just can’t wait to get on the rugby field – I think it’s been a long pre-season for them.
You are used to losing players for the autumn series, so do you think that there will be better cohesion this year because there is no autumn break?
After the World Cup, they’ll only go away for the Six Nations. If you want to be a successful side, you’ve got to learn to deal with it. If you’re successful as a club side, you’re going to have more representatives at international level. That’s just how it is. You can’t have an excuse anymore because it’s been like this for a hell of a long time.
The European season kicks off just two weeks after the World Cup final – do you think that will be difficult to reintegrate the team back that quickly?
Well the first game after the World Cup is actually that Friday against Sale [in the Aviva Premiership] but, depending on how far they get, they probably won’t be involved that first week. I think it’s just a management issue – how much guys have played, how they’re feeling. I’m sure Conor [O’Shea] will see how their mindset is and he might let them in off the bench.
It also depends on how the rest of the team are doing in the previous Premiership games. Once you get some momentum as a team, you really don’t want to interrupt that too much. It will really come down to that. Clearly, if we’re decimated with injuries after three weeks as a squad then we might need to throw them in if they’re fit, but we don’t really envisage that happening.
Nick Easter was speaking in support of Aviva Premiership Rugby First Timers, a joint initiative from Premiership Rugby and Aviva to give 2,000 new rugby fans their first taste of the Aviva Premiership. First Timers can apply for free tickets this season at premiershiprugby.com/
