Earls to leave contract talks until new year

Munster and Ireland back Keith Earls has dropped a broad hint that he would be happy to sign a new contract to stay with the province.

The 2009 Lions tourist, who turned 26 earlier this month, will see hiscurrent two-year deal with the IRFU expire at the end of this season.

Though he has told Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald he does not wish to open negotiations on a new contract until after Christmas, Earls has told the Irish Examiner he is excited by Munster’s future.

“It’s exciting here, there’s some good young lads around and with the new [training] centre [in Limerick] coming along I think things are on the up for Munster,” Earls said.

“I just want to be thinking about rugby now rather than contracts and stuff. Hopefully come January or February we’ll sit down and I’ll see what my options are.”

Those options will include offers from the English Premiership and French Top 14, where interest has been shown in a number of Irish players out of contract next summer, including Munster and Ireland team-mates Conor Murray, Paul O’Connell and Donnacha Ryan.

Earls, speaking before an “irritated” knee tendon forced his withdrawal from Munster’s winning league trip to Glasgow on Friday, said he could see the attractions of chasing medals in the English and French leagues. But with hopes for an agreement over the continuation of Irish involvement in European competition improving last week, he hinted he would be happy to stay in the red if the province was guaranteed regular top-level rugby.

“Whoever is going to talk about their contracts now, it would probably be ‘off to France’. I’ll keep my options open but, yeah, I would like to play week in and week out in big tournaments and Heineken Cup rugby excites me and it excites Munster.”