Bernard Jackman believes Simon Easterby deserves plenty of plaudits for the role he's played in shaping Ireland's defence on the road to the Grand Slam.
Andy Farrell's side clinched the Six Nations title and Grand Slam last Saturday by beating England and continuing the run of form that has left Ireland top of the world rankings off the back of successes like the landmark series win in New Zealand last summer.
One of the factors that's underpinned Ireland's form has been defence, with just a combined 10 tries conceded across the past two Six Nations campaigns.
Speaking on this week's RTÉ Rugby Podcast, Jackman was keen to stress the influence defence coach Easterby has had within the setup.
"I think Simon Easterby deserves big credit. I spoke to Garry Ringrose after the November series about Simon and he said he's phenomenal to work with," he said.
"We kind of get obsessed a little bit with the rugby league coaches, the Shaun Edwards, the Andy Farrells and Kevin Sinfields, but I think Simon Easterby, now he's gone full-time defence - obviously he was doing forwards and defence before Paul O'Connell came in - he's put his own shape on it.
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"Ringrose said he's someone who loves sitting down with the players and talking about situations, getting their opinion on it, getting their buy-in, giving his opinion and then giving them licence to go and do whatever they agree is the best way to defend."
Jackman drew comparisons statistically between Ireland's aggression in defence and the one which factored into Saracens' past success.
"Saracens had the best defence for years in the Premiership but the most missed tackles and Ireland have a high enough percentage of missed tackles but a very low penalty count and a very low concession of try rate which kind of goes against the grain," he explained.
"Usually if you're missing tackles, that stresses the defence or you're undisciplined or you concede tries.
"So it's that scramble, it's that work ethic. You've seen James Ryan and Andrew Porter have high profile tackles on the edge where you're pushing an attacker into touch.
"It's not always perfect but it's very effective and it sends the opposition into areas of the field that they're not really comfortable in and that allows us then to get key turnovers.
"So I think Easterby deserves a lot of credit."
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