sport news England legend Nick Easter is celebrating leading village minnows Chinnor to ... trends now
Nick Easter is midway through his conversation with when the former England No 8’s phone starts ringing. The logical assumption is our chat will temporarily be put on hold.
Chinnor president Simon Vickers is on the line, wanting to talk about the signing of new players for next season now the men known as ‘The Villagers’ will be playing in the Championship – the tier below the Gallagher Premiership – in 2024/25. Chinnor is an ambitious club on the up. Easter is the man in charge and is talking through his side’s National One promotion success.
‘Don’t worry, it’s not a scheduled call so we’ll ignore it,’ he says with a smile, pressing red instead of green and continuing the discussion. Easter, now 45, is a man used to being in demand.
He is constantly busy as he balances trying to lead Chinnor up the English rugby pyramid alongside coaching with the USA ahead of them hosting the 2031 World Cup.
‘Sometimes there aren’t enough hours in the day,’ Easter says. ‘But I love being busy. I loved my playing career and I’ve loved going into coaching. I’ve never lost my passion for the game.
Nick Easter is a constantly busy man - leading Chinnor to promotion, coaching the USA, taking phone calls... and smoking cigars
He hasn't lost his passion for rugby and has led minnows Chinnor to the Championship
‘After we won promotion at Moseley last weekend it was a bit of a late finish. The lads celebrated hard and I joined them! I think I went to bed at 3am but I did miss the Sunday session.
‘I had to go to my in-laws for my nephew’s first birthday. I raised a glass a glass of champagne there instead!’
A powerful carrier in his playing career who won 54 England caps and made 281 appearances for Harlequins, Easter immediately moved into a coaching career with the London club on retirement.
In 2022, he was working at Worcester when the Warriors became the first of three now former Premiership clubs to enter financial oblivion. Like everyone at Sixways, Easter lost his job on the spot.
So, where to turn? National One side Chinnor, who compete in English rugby’s third tier, might not have seemed the most obvious location. But it was where Easter headed as director of rugby.
Last weekend, the Thame-based club hammered Moseley 52-0 to seal the league title and a place in the Championship for next term. Easter has led a remarkable turnaround.
‘You can’t always hark back to the past but I do sometimes wonder what might have been if we’d been allowed to continue under Steve Diamond at Worcester,’ Easter says.
‘We were going the right way and had some good young players combined with some experienced ones. With another season of recruitment, you don’t know what would have happened.
‘Now, the coaches we had at Worcester are all over the place. Dimes is at Newcastle, I’m with Chinnor and the USA, and Stevie Scott is at Bath.’
Easter, who lit up a celebratory cigar to go with his champagne after Chinnor’s latest win, continues: ‘I joined Chinnor on December 1, 2022 and I’ve really enjoyed it.
The ex-England No 8 says there aren't enough hours in the day to do what he wants to do
He coached with Harlequins and Worcester after his career and is now transferring his knowledge at a lower level
‘Since Worcester I’d done a little bit of coaching at Cheltenham College and a few masterclasses, but it was great for me to get back coaching again regularly and at a good level.
‘Chinnor are part time but when I joined it was an attractive proposition because they’d won two games from 11. I took over as director of rugby and had to
