The stars align and applaud for inspirational Earls

Keith Earls joined the centurion club on Saturday in what he said 'the worst week of my life' in the lead up.  

ONE HUNDRED AND COUNTING: Keith Earls earned his 100th cap for Ireland and topped it off with a well worked try in the corner. A perfect way to celebrate after a week of attention the Limerick man usually keeps in the background from. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Danny Care stands just 5’ 8”, Marcus Smith can claim an extra inch. Freddie Steward is a different beast at an imposing 6’ 5”. Add the three together and it makes for 43 stone of prime English beef that careered Keith Earls’ way late on Saturday evening.

The 35-year old Ireland winger had work to do as that desperate, chasing posse closed in some time around 7.30pm, their haste prompted by Bundee Aki’s long, fizzing pass that arced half the width of the Aviva Stadium field towards the isolated winger on the home team’s left touchline.

Earls joked after that he would need to have a word with his teammate for the assist. “It made it hard for me,” he teased. Aki’s feed opened the flank but there wasn’t a split second to spare as the veteran leapt into the air and raised his hands above his head to bring the ball down.

You could ask what goes through a player’s head in moments like that but multiple factors compound all at once and in the blink of an eye. The decision is instantaneous and Earls’ instinct kicked in. He was bounding for the corner as soon as his feet made terra firma and James Ryan summed up the score, and the aftermath, to a tee.

“It was kind of almost disbelief when you saw him catch and score the try in the corner, the celebration and all. It was some buzz. The stars were aligned for that moment. He is a bit of an inspirational figure in our camp. You could feel the energy and the buzz in the stadium, it was brilliant.” 

The crackle of energy and the warmth of feeling for Earls when he came on 15 minutes earlier may have topped anything witnessed for an Irish player since Brian O’Driscoll played his last game at the Aviva Stadium a decade earlier.

It seemed then to be the best window to pay tribute on the day of his 100th cap but the reaction to the try, secured with the flourish of a nifty somersault, added a crescendo that swept around the stadium like a supercharged Mexican wave.

It really couldn’t have been written any better. Or worse, if fuss isn’t your thing.

The man’s thrill at scoring was clear but the approach to Saturday itself seemed designed specifically to torture someone who makes such an effort to shun the spotlight. It was, he admitted, “probably the worst week of my life” because of the attention.

Mack Hansen’s hirsute tribute was the most visible representation. The Connacht man had intended to cut a shamrock into his dyed green mop but it morphed into the ‘KE 100’ look that was modelled at the team’s captain’s run on Friday.

“I was sitting in the team room and I was like, 'I want no part in this' and walked away. Craig (Casey) sent me a picture and what a horrendous job they'd done on it,” Earls joked. “But that man, he's such a unique character in rugby and you just have to leave him be.”

Hansen’s offering may have been unusual in its choice of canvas but it chimed with the theme and the depth of the sentiments expressed in a ten-minute video put together by Earls’ wife Edel that corralled contributions from a who’s who of Irish rugby.

The roll call of testimonials included Declan Kidney, Joe Schmidt, Paul O’Connell, Brian O’Driscoll, Peter O’Mahony, Simon Zebo, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray, Andrew Conway and Rory Scannell, and the depth of feeling in the messages was reciprocated.

“Yeah, I was, very emotional,” Earls admitted. “It was emotional, the hardest thing I’ve ever done on Thursday trying to keep the tears out of my eyes around all the lads but I think I managed to do it. So it was grand.” 

Andy Farrell didn’t invent emotion but he has facilitated an open and sharing environment during his time in charge, not least through covid, and the doors of the team’s camp were opened wide to Earls’ parents, his sister, his wife and his daughters on Thursday.

The Englishman had urged Earls to embrace this occasion rather than keep it at arm’s length and his words chimed with regrets on the recipient’s part at how he had spurned the chance to lead Ireland out against Scotland on the occasion of his 50th cap.

So it was that he took to the pitch first two days ago with his three children by his side through to the singing of the national anthem. It was a “special, special” moment for a man who revealed that Farrell was central to another snapshot of equal import.

“I suppose getting presented with the cap by Andy Farrell,” he explained. “We're big Rugby League fans in our house. My father always watched Rugby League and Faz was always mentioned in our house.

“What he's done and the respect I have for him as a man, and how relaxed he's made our environment… People are being themselves and what he's done for us… but that was a special moment.” 

All the more so for the doubts that lingered before he was brought on. It was hell, he said, sitting on that bench as the thought festered that he might not make it on after all the hullabaloo in the days before it. But maybe the wait was fitting.

The Moyross man earned his 98th Ireland cap on last summer’s tour to New Zealand but he then had to sit tight for a full 13 months until he made it 99 when playing against Italy in Dublin earlier in August.

His contract ends in November but there were intimations last week that his days as a player may not end this side of the New Year. First things first, though. Priority number one is making the squad of 33 when it is named this day next week.

“Listen, that's the reason why I came back for pre-season. That's the reason that I'm doing everything possible to stay fit. I have a burning desire to give myself the best chance to get to another World Cup.” 

Saturday might just have sealed it.