The contract deal for which the IRFU should get credit

Locking down Keith Earls to a new contract that keeps him in Munster until after the 2019 World Cup was a piece of savvy business Lansdowne Road mightn’t have got due credit for, says Ronan O’Gara.

Earls is 29 and, unless his next IRFU contract offer is a shocker, he’ll end up a proud one-club man in Munster, but the suitors will keep knocking on the door. Last Monday morning, he’d have had a tasty proposal from Racing 92 if the swooning after last Sunday’s performance in Paris was anything to judge by.

A few of the Racing coaching staff and players were in contact after Sunday’s game, which was very decent of them, and the Earls factor cropped up early and often in each conversation. The coaching staff was extremely impressed by him: ‘A thing of beauty’, in approximate translation.