Harlequins No 8 Nick Easter has announced his retirement from rugby union to take up a full-time coaching role with the club. The former England international, with 54 caps, made a club-record 281 appearances for Quins but will now be in charge of defence at the club.Explaining his decision, the 38-year-old said he has recently struggled to get motivated for matches and believed the club deserves a player who can commit totally to playing. He told Sky Sports News HQ: Around January or February time, I struggled with the mental motivation a little bit.Ive never had a problem getting up for games. Ive always wanted to win and give everything but that was only happening every two or three games from January or February onward. Nick Easter played 54 times in a stalwart England career I thought it might be the toll of the season so I thought Id sit on it over the summer, have five weeks off and turn up for pre-season. Well the prowlers are out, the bags are out, the running canes are out, the stopwatches are out, and I realised actually I havent changed my mind.The coaching career definitely helped make the decision. I was contracted to play this season, the offer was player-coach, taking part in the defensive aspect, which is a huge area and would have been a full-time schedule. A look back at Easters career as he retires from rugby with Harlequins and England I would have had to fit my playing in and around that and I just didnt think it would be fair on myself nor the boys, not produce the sort of quality I feel Ive been doing for the last few years.Easter joined Harlequins from Orrell in 2004, and won the first of his 54 England caps in 2007. Nick Easter, Forwards coach Graham Rowntree, the New Harlequins Director of Rugby John Kingston, Head coach Mark Mapletoft and Skills coach Collin Osborne During his fourth Test match that he scored a record four tries, against Wales in the 62-5 victory at Twickenham Stadium.He was part of the squad which reached the World Cup final in 2007, and won the Six Nations title in 2011.He played a huge role in helping Harlequins win their first Premiership title, in May 2012.In 2015, after a four-year absence from the international scene, he was called into Stuart Lancasters squad for the Six Nations and became Englands oldest try scorer in the victory over Italy.He was then re-called into Englands World Cup squad as an injury replacement for Billy Vunipola and was named man of the match after scoring three tries against Uruguay in Englands final Pool game. Easter (centre) played 281 times for Harlequins Kingston said: Nick has been an unbelievable servant to the Harlequins team for over a decade.He has been at the very heartbeat of all the successes the side has achieved over this period.Nick has a fantastic rugby brain and it is for this reason I offered him the opportunity to join the new look coaching team at the club. Both Nick and I have agreed it is in the best interests of Quins that he focuses on his coaching exclusively from now. Also See: Kingston leads Easter tributes Quins sign Connacht forward Premiership home Rugby Union on Sky Cheap Nike Air Max 270 Blue . Jamies number grades given are out of five, with five being the best mark. Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers (5) - Simply put, Lundqvist was brilliant. Cheap Nike Air Max 270 All Black . Weise left the arena with a splint on his wrist and underwent tests to determine whether the tendon is torn. 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Neals slapshot over Anders Lindbacks right shoulder capped a frantic final 15 minutes of play as the teams traded the lead three times. Evgeni Malkin had two goals and two assists while Sidney Crosby added a goal and two assists for the Penguins, who have won nine straight over the Lightning. Jeff Zatkoff stopped 21 shots and Pittsburgh ended Tampa Bays five-game winning streak. Steven Stamkos, Valtteri Filppula and Ondrej Palat scored for the Lightning, who have recorded at least one point in eight straight games. Lindback made 25 saves but had no chance on Neals 23rd goal of the season. The teams spent two periods playing the kind of conservative hockey more suited for the Stanley Cup playoffs than the wide-open attacking style more fitting for two of the most offensively talented teams in the league. No matter, they made up for it in the third. Stamkos broke a 1-1 tie 8:17 into the final period when he poked a rebound underneath Zatkoffs legs to put the Lightning in front. The lead lasted less than three minutes, as Malkin pounced on a rebound off a Matt Niskanen slapshot into an open net for his third goal in two games. Malkins 23th of the season came with 3:17 left in regulation when he powered a shot by Lindback that seemed to deflate the Lightning. It did, but only momentarily. Palat stunned the 319th consecutive sellout crowd at Consol Energy Center when he cleanly beat Zatkoff to tie the game at 3 with just 1:22 left in regulatiion.dddddddddddd Tampa Bay gave the leagues top-ranked power play a chance to end it when the Lightning were called for too many men on the ice 1:11 into overtime. The Penguins needed just 16 seconds to win it as Malkin set up Neal in the forwards favourite spot at the top of the left circle. The puck was a blur as it sailed into the net as Pittsburgh bounced back from a 5-4 overtime loss to Detroit on Thursday when the Red Wings scored on a bounce off a Penguins defenceman with less than a second to go in overtime. The Lightning have been the hottest team in hockey not named the Boston Bruins since Stamkos return from a leg injury last month. Fueled by their star -- and his elevation to captain after Martin St. Louis was traded to the New York Rangers -- Tampa Bay has sprinted to third in the Eastern Conference standings. They certainly looked like one of the conferences elite while trying to end a lengthy bout of futility against Pittsburgh. Tampa Bay clogged the neutral zone and seemed to have the upper hand at times when the teams were playing at full strength. Seven penalties, however, did them in. The Penguins went 3 for 6 on the power play. NOTES: Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said theres a "possibility" goaltender Tomas Vokoun could play before the beginning of the post-season, though it seems unlikely. Vokoun has been out since training camp while recovering from a blood clots. ... Zatkoff picked up the first point of his NHL career with the secondary assist on Crosbys goal. ... 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