Earls gets the call ahead of McFadden

Keith Earls would have had a spring in his step anyway as he celebrated becoming a father for the first time.

Now he will take to the Aviva Stadium pitch on Sunday having become the heir apparent to Brian O’Driscoll’s Ireland No 13 jersey.

Earls was at home adjusting to fatherhood with partner Edel and new daughter Ella-Maye, born last week, when head coach Declan Kidney announced that the Munster back would also need to make some on-field adjustments this weekend when he starts the opening Six Nations match against Wales as the injured O’Driscoll’s stand-in at outside centre.

Earls, 24, edged out Leinster’s Fergus McFadden for the outside centre birth, thus ending months of speculation as to who would replace the Ireland captain following his season-ending shoulder surgery. There had been plenty of other names in the ring for Kidney to assess, not least Ulster’s Darren Cave, who fell by the wayside due to injury, Tommy Bowe, Andrew Trimble and the uncapped Eoins, O’Malley and Griffen.

In the end it came down to a head to head with McFadden but the Leinster man will have to be satisfied with a place on the bench on Sunday.

Earls’ inclusion is one of three changes from the side that lined out against the Welsh in the World Cup quarter-final with the Limerick back coming off the wing in a positional switch to partner Gordon D’Arcy in midfield. The two new faces are Ulster’s Andrew Trimble, who comes into the spot vacated by Earls on the left wing while Jonathan Sexton won the latest round of the great Irish fly-half debate by getting the nod ahead of Ronan O’Gara to start alongside scrum-half Conor Murray.

In keeping the pack unchanged from the last game, Kidney has gone against provincial pecking orders by selecting Donncha O’Callaghan ahead of Munster team-mate Donnacha Ryan to partner captain Paul O’Connell in the second row while another Munster forward, the uncapped Peter O’Mahony, is named in the replacements as back-row cover.

It is Earls, though, who has much to celebrate and much to catch up on given his first taste of paternity leave over the last few days.

“Keith and his partner have had a baby at the end of last week so he wasn’t training last week,” Kidney said. “He came in the early part of this week, just to get accustomed to the idea and he’ll be in for the rest of the week.”

Explaining why Earls and not McFadden got the start, Kidney later explained: “Keith has had a good World Cup, he’s come back in and been playing 13 and continued that form right throughout and finished well in Heineken Cup (rounds) five and six. When he was in training with us last Thursday and Friday he was flying, so you’re trying to weigh that up then against Fergus, who’s in a similar situation. The fact Fergus has adjusted between 13 and wing gives us great versatility. Tommy was another option but he hasn’t had a whole lot of time at 13 recently so we thought it more prudent to leave him where he is playing well and scoring tries. We had a few options but I just think Keith has a nice balance the way he is right now.”

The Irish camp has this week been understandably playing down the significance of the new No13 having to fill the breach for the colossus of the game that is O’Driscoll, a point underlined on Tuesday by assistant coach Mark Tainton who stressed that the incoming outside centre “did not need to be anything he’s not”.

That statement would apply particularly to Earls, a player who wears his heart on his sleeve and is unafraid of being publicly self analytical. Still, both Kidney and O’Connell said they had no concerns about handing Earls the task of replacing his captain.

“I didn’t factor it in at all,” Kidney said. “In coaching as in playing you work with what you’ve got and in fairness to Brian, Brian wouldn’t want to be put on a pedestal. You could go back and say there were times when you’d ask who will replace John Hayes but Mike Ross has come in and played Mike Ross’s way. Whoever comes in for Brian, all we’ll ask them to do is come in and play their way.

“It’s as cut-throat as that. All we want him to do is the exact same, just play his own game and bring to it whatever he can on any given day.”

It was a message echoed by O’Connell, who said of his Munster team-mate: “He’s a lot more experienced now, he had a good World Cup, he’s been playing well for us and he had an excellent game against Northampton. Guys have to be trusted as well. If he’s picked and he’s playing well you’ve got to trust a guy and let him continue doing what he’s doing and what he’s picked for.”

The same applies to the rest of the team, and although the retention of O’Callaghan over Ryan at lock hardly represents a new dawn, Kidney repeated his theme of having had to make difficult choices for his side to face Wales on Sunday.

“That was another tough one. Donnacha Ryan has been playing exceptionally well at Munster. When we had him in the squad in August I was wondering whether he would make it in the squad or not but he’s come on in leaps and bounds since the World Cup. Again, it’s just the make up and mix of the team and the chemistry that each guy brings to it and I just think that Donncha O’Callaghan in the last two games he’s started has been doing what he’s always brought to Ireland and that’s a good mix for us and that’s why I’m starting with him this time.”