Earls happy with the leading role

SCORING three tries in two Test matches in the space of a fortnight will take some beating for rugby-mad 22-year-old Keith Earls but yesterday he again found himself in the limelight as the Grand Marshal of the Limerick St Patrick’s Day Parade.

“It was something I was really looking forward to in my native city, it is a massive honour,” said Earls.

“I know the mayor, Kevin Kiely, he’s a Thomond man like myself and the president of the club. He asked if I would do it and I had no hesitation in agreeing.

“I just had to lead the parade down O’Connell Street but I had my little three-year-old sister Jenny with me so I didn’t have to be waving the whole time. I signed a lot of rugby balls a few weeks ago, maybe 200 or something like that, and I threw them into the crowd.”

Before taking on the task, Keith received clearance and encouragement from Irish coach Declan Kidney. As it so happens, the players are allowed to leave their Dublin camp on the Tuesday of each Test week to relieve the boredom.

“Yeah, it helped to take the mind off the game for a while,” said Earls. “It was good because you don’t have to live and breathe rugby all the time. I had a chat with Deccie (Kidney) about it because I didn’t want it to look like I was kind of forgetting about the game three days before the Test.

“But it was only an hour and I’d have been going home anyway. I didn’t always go home on my day off. I hung around the last couple of weeks having treatment on a groin strain and had a bit of sleep and chilled out with Tomás O’Leary and a couple of lads around.”

! However, it was quickly back to business last night for Keith Earls and he certainly wasn’t complaining. His career graph is climbing ever higher as he fulfils the massive promise displayed during his school days at St Nessan’s and St Munchin’s and his club performances for Thomond, Garryowen and Young Munster.

He followed up his cracking try against England with two more last week against Wales and it’s an occasion he won’t forget, even when his total of Irish appearances soars towards the hundred mark as looks assured.

“It was a great game to be involved in,” Earls glowed. “That was especially so after last year and the Grand Slam decider; it was a massive game and good to get good scores and beat them the way we did. It was my best game for Ireland and I was happy with it because it was such a big game and it was nice to get on the scoreboard.”

Keith’s progress also vindicates the selectors who saw his huge potential and named him for the Lions tour in South Africa last summer. Those who chose him will feel they have helped a player of huge potential to fast-forward his career. Also it puts those critics, particularly in England, who didn’t believe he was up to the task, firmly in their place.

So is he aware his growing reputation will make him a marked man? “Not really, to be honest,” he insisted. “I haven’t a clue about that kind of thing, I don’t read papers much and I just get on with it. I don’t really care.

Of course I’m happy with my strike count, what is it, six tries out of nine Test games? I’m over the 50% so, yeah, I have to be happy with that.”

Keith Earls was barely out of his teens in 2008 when he played his first Test against Canada at Thomond Park. The game was only a few minutes old when he touched down for his first Ireland try but even so he was still a tyro, a young man still learning most of the tricks of the trade and in awe of some of those around him.

“Yeah, I’ve got more confident around the squad,” he says.

“It’s good to have a good game and good to be a regular this season. I’m more relaxed and stuff and there’s a good buzz about training. I’m getting involved more. There is always debate about where I would most like to play. I’m enjoying the wing now, but obviously I was enjoying 13 before I came into the Irish camp with Munster.

“I think the full-back thing has kind of slipped away a bit although there’s still the versatility issue and whether that might affect my career.

“I was concerned about it a couple of months back. I didn’t want the number 22 jersey but with Luke’s (Fitzgerald) unfortunate injury, it gave me a chance to show my versatility. And with Darce and Drico, if they go off, I can go in 13 or 12, so I suppose it works both ways.”

Earls, Jonathan Sexton and Cian Healy are the three members of Saturday’s side who have yet to add a Triple Crown to their CV. So the game assumes even greater significance for this trio and it’s an atmosphere that Earls cannot wait to savour.

“It’s surreal,” he says. “It’s strange when my father talks about 1985 and the Triple Crown. It’s historic. And now I have a chance to go down in history as well. It’s a brilliant feeling but it’s going to be a tough day. It means a lot to Deccie and the players.

“I’ve never played Scotland. I’ve played a couple of A games and underage alright but never at senior level. It’s going to be tough you know, they’re physical, they’ve been playing really good rugby this year. They nearly caught Wales in Wales and got a draw against England. And they’re coming over here to beat one of the big fish.”