Earls: I want to be more than a fringe player

KEITH EARLS batted away the suggestion that he is frustrated and pounded the point that he will do whatever he must for the good of the team, but there was an unmistakable sense yesterday that the Mr Versatile tag is weighing heavily on him.

Since his Munster debut over four years ago, the former St Munchin’s man has popped up at wing, centre and full-back for club and country and he has actually worn the 11, 15 and 13 shirts in his last three starts in green against Wales, England and France.

He has stated time and again that the only number he doesn’t want on his back is the dreaded 22 but accepted yesterday that his ability to fill so many niches can help in the push for a place on the squad while hindering a claim for a starting berth.

If he had a choice, his preference would be for a piece of real estate he could call home along the left wing but he was asked to lodge at outside-centre against France last Saturday in Brian O’Driscoll’s absence and didn’t exactly fall in love with the surroundings.

“It’s been a rollercoaster,” he admitted at the team’s HQ yesterday. “I was just getting used to the wing again and being pushed into 13...a new defensive role, a new attacking role and you have to be a bit more vocal in bossing forwards around.

“But you have to do what’s best for the team. Obviously, the main man was missing and I got my chance at 13. Hopefully I’ll get a chance this week as well because I don’t feel I did myself justice on Saturday.”

Earls’s dilemma is compounded by the fact that, by his own admission, he needs two or three games to work his way into form and that showed during the Six Nations when he was entrusted with a prolonged run in the side where he duly prospered.

For a while there, it even looked like he was going to remain on the left-wing long enough to put up curtains and buy some furniture but then came the last game against England and a switch of address to full-back where he excelled in a superb collective effort.

“You’re confusing me now,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re telling me what my best position is. The free role, wing or full-back, I don’t know, where I don’t have to be bossing forwards around or making space for other fellas. I just want to be out there and running around like a maniac.”

Centre requires a slightly different catalogue of skills, among them the need for an absolutely watertight defensive performance and the ability and willingness to use vocal cords that a wing could keep wrapped in cotton wool until the after party.

Earls isn’t the fidgeting interviewee he used to be when he first broke through but he remains a quietly-spoken individual nonetheless and it took time and teaching at Munster for him to learn how to be heard as well as seen on the pitch.

“Tony McGahan has drilled it into my head since I came in as a centre. I’d been contemplating giving up rugby because of Tony at the start,” he said with a smile. “He was just non-stop abusing me, telling me what to do.

“In fairness, it made me a better player and more vocal on the pitch, telling fellas what to do. There’s been forwards coming up to me and saying ‘Aw, Jesus, thanks a million for telling me to do this and do that’ which is quite good as well.”

He hasn’t voiced his thoughts on the subject with Declan Kidney but nights like last Saturday in Bordeaux, when Luke Fitzgerald and Andrew Trimble impressed while he laboured in midfield, can’t make his wanderings any easier. “It’s quite tough. The two boys are flying. They are looking sharp and me playing out of position is quite tough. I’ve been getting a bit scared, thinking you’re looking at the No 22 jersey again. I’ll fight away and hopefully I’ll get another opportunity in the next two games.”

With Connacht providing the opposition tomorrow and France on Saturday, the question is when and, more pertinently, where that opportunity will come?

Whatever the answer, he is enjoying the challenge despite the uncertainty and he is eager to play in his first World Cup.

“Yeah, definitely. You just want a crack at it. It’s funny, you do all this training and you just want to get out onto the pitch but obviously things didn’t go our way on Saturday and you’re thinking, ‘I did all this training and we’re not hitting a bit of form’ but, as I said already, it takes me a couple of games to get into my stride.”