Earls: Tour has made me stronger
That Keith Earls was disappointed, but not miffed, at failing to make the Test team on this happy Ian McGeechan-led tour speaks volumes for how far he has come in such a short space of time.
Anyone watching the opening game of the tour against the Royal XV might have feared for young Earls. By his own admission, he had a poor game, highlighted by three glaring errors.
But if that was a low point he certainly put it behind him, and his graph rose impressively after that to the point where, insiders revealed this week, he was a serious candidate for selection on the injury-hit side for the third Test.
Earls was first to put his hand up and admit that opening game was best forgotten. “I think I was trying too hard; that was part of the reason anyway because I probably read too much into criticism of my selection from a couple of sources, a newspaper and rugby magazine in England.
“It was the worst game I ever played; I felt like crawling into a hole because here I was playing in the biggest match I ever played in with fans all over the world watching. I was a bag of nerves and I should have just gone out and played my own game as I had been advised to do. Anyway, it’s water under the bridge and thank goodness things got much better after that.”
The support from within helped. “During the match Rog (Ronan O’Gara) and Paulie (Paul O’Connell) were great, hugely encouraging and Rob Kearney, although he is not much older than me, was fantastic. He kept on talking me up, persuading me that I wouldn’t be there unless I was good enough. Hopefully, I proved him right,” he said.
Earls was given an opportunity to play both outside centre and full back during the tour and he is still not quite sure where his future lies.
Lions coach McGeechan did mention Earls could turn into a classy outside centre but for now his immediate future would appear to be at full back.
Earls would be happy playing in either position but doesn’t want to be labelled a utility player either.
“I played all my rugby through school in the centre, but I’m happy to have been given a run at full back too. I’ve learned that at the top level you probably get more opportunity to play at full back; at least there’s more space because you get to see what’s in front of you.”
He certainly was able to do that in the first half of the game against the Emerging Springboks when he scored what has been described as one of the best tries of the tour.
Yet he dismisses the effort by saying it was only part of his job. “We were attacking but some of the backs had been sucked into a ruck, there was no number 10 around and I just did what I had been taught to do – act as first receiver, and a gap happened to open up,” he said.
Earls could have 2013 and 2017 tours to look forward to; he is young enough to cram them into a career that seems destined to be littered with success.
But Earls is only concerned about the immediate future. He will look back on this tour happily on the basis of the rugby and friendships he made.
“I still can’t quite get a handle on it, but from the very first day of the tour when we met in Penny Hill in London, I knew it was going to be good. It was as if we were meeting up with old friends, even though I didn’t even recognise some of the players.
“Munster is a pretty special and tight camp and this was the same; we knew what we wanted, we knew that was to win a Test series and we knew we had to be friends to do it. We lost the series, but we went pretty close and I think the reason for our good performances had something to do with the bonds built up within the squad.
“I can’t remember how many guys I roomed with because we switched regularly; the ones I can recall immediately are Ugo Monye, Mike Phillips, Mike Blair, Simon Shaw and Stephen Jones – all great guys, great craic.”
As well as the memories, Earls believes he will be a better player for the experience. “I think I’m stronger mentally now than I was eight weeks ago. I have learned to believe that I’m good enough to play at the highest level. Hopefully that will help me become a better player next season,” he said.
Keith Earls’ Lions tour appearances: V. Royal XV, Free State Cheetahs (try), Southern Kings, Western Province, Emerging Springboks (try).
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