Andy Farrell: 'I had to persuade Keith Earls not to retire'

STILL GOING STRONG: Keith Earls was persuaded by Andy Farrell not to retire. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Andy Farrell has shared how he had to persuade Keith Earls not to call time on his playing days at the start of 2022.

The Munster veteran was named in Farrell’s 33-man squad for the upcoming World Cup having passed the 100-cap mark for his country this month and scoring a superb try in the defeat of England in Dublin two weekends ago.

If that has been fairytale stuff then it hasn’t all been sweetness and light for Earls who, in his recent book, revealed how he told then Munster head coach Johann van Graan about his intention to walk away back in September of 2020.

That was at a point when the player was struggling with a lung condition that has subsequently been dealt with sufficiently to allow him continue but the Limerick man has since had to overcome other injury issues in the twilight of his career.

“I had a conversation 18 months ago to try to stop him from retiring,” said Farrell after naming the popular back in his collective for the tournament in France.

“He's certainly come through the other side. He's been outstanding over the last nine weeks as regards giving to the squad, his whole self, his experience et cetera, but at the same time being as fit and excited as I've ever seen him.”

That take on Earls was prompted by a query as to which of the players named in the touring party had travelled the furthest to make the plane to France. It was a debate that leaned, understandably, at first towards those with more youth on their side.

Jack Crowley and Joe McCarthy are two players included who have benefited this last season by the decision to expand the senior management’s remit with an enlarged touring party in New Zealand, an Emerging Ireland trip and an ‘A’ game at the RDS.

Others to benefit but who didn’t quite make the final list were Calvin Nash and Tom Stewart and Farrell clearly feels vindicated at the addition of all these international opportunities which were far from popular in some circles of the game.

“Go back to the Emerging Tour, the South African tour, and you know everyone knew how hard that was, how hard a time it was for Irish rugby because there was a little bit of fallout. Have a look at what's come from that.

“The experience of sending a kid over to grasp what it takes to be an international player and seeing how they run with that experience, for the rest of the season. Can they make it into the first team in their province, and not just start but thrive in that type of pressure?

“That's been an extraordinary story if you ask me.”