Keith Earls declines offer to lead team on 50th cap

Rory Best probably knew what the answer was going to be, but the Ireland captain asked anyway. 

It was Keith Earls’ 50th cap, after all so custom dictated that the player in question should be afforded the opportunity to lead his team out for the occasion. Earls, true to character, declined the offer.

Just not his style.

“I try to keep it low key,” he explained. “I just felt it wasn’t about me. It was about one of these games where the win is more important than my 50th. I might regret it when I retire, but I felt this week it was probably better for the team not to focus on it.”

There were tears. Just not his. CJ Stander, a son of the Western Cape in South Africa, may have few Irish roots beyond those planted in just over three seasons at Munster, but the back row was apparently crying prior to Saturday’s kick-off.

“He’s just a passionate man,” said Earls, his Munster teammate. “He puts himself on the line, no matter what he’s going to do, and he’s delighted with the way Irish people have taken to him and he wants to repay them.”

It was an emotional note on which to kick off a game that, on the face of it, contained little for two teams without title ambitions, but Earls didn’t disagree when it was suggested that every Test is to be cherished in a sport where injury is such a frequent visitor. He knows that only too well. And yet the clouds appear to be parting given he has started nine of Ireland’s last 10. The one absence, against France in Paris, was due to a concussion and he reckons it is 12 months since he has been sidelined for anything longer than a week.

That must be a revelation for a player who believes it had been at least three seasons, maybe more, since he had last enjoyed such a run. There are times now that he has to bite his lip when he feels like pointing out that maybe he is playing too much. A nice complaint to have.

“I went through a few tough times over the last few years. When you’re injured, you spend a lot of time thinking. You’re wondering if you’re good enough. If your body is up to it. I started to look after myself. And I suppose having kids motivates you. You’re trying to play for them and trying to make a living for them.”

Fitness without form is a mixed blessing, of course, but Earls has been superb for Joe Schmidt who championed the Limerick man from the moment he took the Ireland job and his try against the Scots was his fifth this season — his 17th in total.

“I haven’t put up any weight or anything like that. I probably put on a small bit of lean muscle for the World Cup. A lot of people thought I got bigger but I just trimmed down a bit.

“I just started looking after myself and minding my habits off the pitch: you bring them onto the pitch as well. I’m delighted to be putting it back to back.”