Keith Earls: 'We’re a bit obsessed about having the perfect game'

Keith Earls has been here before, bounding towards a new Six Nations campaign on the back of an uplifting November window and with the kudos of a Grand Slam title in the team’s kitbag from the year before.

What followed, in 2010, was a curate’s egg. Declan Kidney’s side won in Twickenham but got their asses handed to them in Paris. Then Scotland punctured the whole shebang and a Triple Crown with it by winning what remains the last ever game of rugby in Croke Park.