Earls keen to take flight after absence

Having gone 35 days without a game, and almost five months since he pulled on a green jersey, Ireland centre Keith Earls is possibly the last person you will find complaining about four games in as many weeks.

Tomorrow’s Aviva Stadium duel with Italy will mark his return from parental leave following the birth of his daughter. He is keen to finally putbehind him a World Cup quarter-final defeat to Wales last October he describes as “probably my worst game” for Ireland. So any reservations about playing four Tests in succession have been cast aside by tomorrow’s number 13.

“I suppose you can take some bad things and some good things out of it, playing four physical games in-a-row, your body, it is all about keeping the injury list low, but hopefully get a win this weekend and keep our momentum going, it could be a good thing for us,” said Earls, in a videointerview due to be posted on theIRFU website this morning.