Earls keen to take flight again following injury frustration
Munster's Earls will start on the left wing at Stadio Flaminio in Ireland's opening game of the RBS 6 Nations with Leinster's Fergus McFadden making his international debut on the right and Luke Fitzgerald, also of Leinster, at full-back.
Ireland coach Declan Kidney said he has picked a back three “willing to take on the opposition” and Earls, who had once harboured hopes of playing full-back, believes he is in the right place to meet his coach's expectations.
“I’m very happy to be on the wing,” Earls said. “I think the full-back position is gone from me now; I haven’t played there in two years, I’d say. It’s an exciting back three, and hopefully there will be a lot of running.
“With Fergus on top form for the last couple of months, it’s going to be exciting to play with him. He’s a good runner and a good defender, and with Lukey, we all know what he can do.”
Earls and scrum-half Tomás O'Leary are the Munster men in an otherwise all-Leinster back line but he added: “It’s not an issue. I’ve been here for the last two years and I’ve got on great with the Leinster lads. Against Fiji two years ago, I played in a ‘Leinster’ back line as well, and it was a good game.
“We had a victory and I got two good tries. It’s good, it’s good to play with different players and different lines of running. You get to know them and they get to know you.”
Despite sounding wistful about his chance of playing full-back passing him by, Earls said it was no long an issue and was never discussed with Kidney.
“No, he never spoke to me. I played the Six Nations on the left wing last year, and I feel more comfortable on the wing than at full-back. He asked me would I prefer the left or the right wing, and the left wing suits me better.”
More importantly, after a frustrating autumn international series in November as he struggled to regain fitness following a pre-season injury, Earls is just happy to be in a starting berth heading into the Six Nations.
“There are a lot of fellas delighted to be picked, and we’ll go out there and hopefully we’ll play well and hopefully we’ll be there for the five games. We don’t want to let anyone back in.”
Earls managed just 49 minutes of rugby as a substitute in three of the four the November Tests, against South Africa, New Zealand and Argentina, but said it had been a matter of conditioning rather than a comment by the management on his form.
“It was very frustrating,” he said. “I’d only played a handful of games after coming back from injury. I wasn’t fit, I was overweight. Deccie said to work on my fitness during the autumn, and I got a bit of game-time as well.
“I’m where I want to be now, I’m a lot lighter and a lot sharper. I had no pre-season with the groin injury, and then coming back I did ligaments in my ankle. Then I was straight into the London Irish game, so I didn’t have much of a chance with no pre-season.”
He has his chance now and the Moyross man will be looking for some Irish success to ease the pain of a deeply disappointing campaign in the Heineken Cup with Munster that saw the two-time champions exit before the knockout stages for the first time in 12 seasons.
“It was the worst feeling I ever had with Munster,” said Earls, 24 next Thursday.
“It was tough, the week after was tough. All the lads are still hungry; this is a new competition, new players, new game-plan. Hopefully it will be good.
“It was a shock to the (Munster) supporters more than anyone. We made a bit of history, a bit of bad history, being the first team out in (12) seasons.
“We’re hungry and we’ll learn from our mistakes. We beat ourselves in a couple of games but we’ll learn from it. It won’t be the end of us.
“We always want to win everything. We’re in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup and it’s good, everyone is hungry.”
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