'It was one of my proudest moments,' Keith Earls thrilled to captain Ireland to victory

WINNING SMILE: Ireland’s Keith Earls with the Irish infused Maori All Blacks jersey that was presented to him by TJ Perenara of the Maori All Blacks after the game

Keith Earls spoke of one his proudest moments in a storied career after captaining Ireland to victory over the Maori All Blacks on Tuesday.

The 34-year-old, who scored a try on his 97th Test cap in the first Test against New Zealand 10 days earlier, led the tourists to 30-24 win in this non-capped international at Sky Stadium.

The Munster wing, playing at outside centre in Wellington, referenced growing up in Moyross, Limerick as he spoke of the honour of being handed the captaincy of this inexperienced Irish second-string.

“It was genuinely one of my proudest moments,” Earls said. “The people back home, the place I’m from, Limerick, they are rugby crazy and it was a huge honour but it was also a huge honour to captain such a young, inexperienced side, and for those players to get their first win in an Irish jersey, coming to New Zealand, to get it done together, and to be able to captain that side was very special.” 

It was a first win over the Maori All Blacks in four attempts dating back to 1888 and most recently in Hamilton 13 days ago when the Irish were beaten 32-17. 

And there was further good news from the Irish management on Tuesday when they confirmed Peter O’Mahony had passed the third and final stage of his return to play protocols following a failed in-game Head Injury Assessment late on in the second Test victory over the All Blacks last Saturday in Dunedin. 

The back-rower is now cleared to be considered for the deciding final Test at Sky Stadium on Saturday while tighthead prop Finlay Bealham, a replacement during the second Test is also expected to be available despite withdrawing from Tuesday’s bench with a calf issue.

Ireland had gone behind early to a Shaun Stevenson try on three minutes before Jordan Larmour’s leveller four minutes later. Nick Timoney added another before half-time with fly-half Ciaran Frawley augmenting an impressive outing at number 10 with a penalty and two conversions to give the Irish a 17-5 half-time lead.

Another Frawley penalty after the break was followed by a penalty try for the Maori All Blacks after Larmour prevented a score by tackling Stevenson without the ball, earning him a yellow card in the process. Gavin Coombes capped an eye-catching performance at No.8 with Ireland’s third try before replacement back Ruben Love scored one try and made another for co-captain Brad Weber either side fo a second Larmour try 

Head coach Andy Farrell, who divided his time on Tuesday preparing the Test team for the deciding match of their series against New Zealand this Saturday and holding final run throughs with Earls’s team in the hours before kick-off, said he was impressed by the improvements made since that tour-opening defeat.

“These boys have been dying for a game for the last 13 days and for it to finally come around and for them to improve and get a big W on the board is very pleasing for them going forward,” Farrell said before describing how happy he was with the depth of his squad on the back that win.

“We will see what comes of this. It is up to the players to dust themselves off, go on holidays and whet their appetites to start pre-season training and get off the blocks with a bang because they understand what it is like to be a top-line international player.

“And then according to how pre-season goes, how they start pre-season, how they start the season, they have to put their hand up in the first seven games to get selected for the autumn series. It is up to them now to have the hunger because they know what it is all about now, they know what is expected of them.” 

The Ireland boss had said meeting the Maori All Blacks twice on this New Zealand tour had felt like playing five Tests including the actual three-Test series against the All Blacks with no suggestion of a drop below Tier-One nation standards.

“The focus has been on both games, both teams. there’s been no disparity there whatsoever. It’s been quite easy really. We’ve been pretty lucky. Obviously we’ve had things going on in the background with a few different knocks and injuries but we’d a pretty healthy squad going into tonight and on the back of that a pretty healthy squad going into the rest of the week.” 

The victory continued the momentum last Saturday’s series-levelling second Test win over the All Blacks in Dunedin and provides a big boost to the mood of the travelling squad in what Farrell described as being “the week of our lives” as his side chases more history on New Zealand soil.

Translating a first Test win here into a historic first series win in possibly the last three-Test tour of New Zealand before a global rugby calendar does away with the concept in favour of a world championship of home and away fixtures would be a momentous achievement and this Ireland squad is now in an even better position following back-to-back tour wins.

“The mood’s good anyway. It does help when you win but it’s all about improving the performance and togetherness and growing as a group and it helps when you win a Test match. The mood would have still been great anyway.

“It was exactly the same tonight. If the boys had lost tonight, we still would have learnt and pushed forward. It’s about growing the group as we’ve talked about non-stop on this tour and we feel that we’ve done that anyway.”