Earls aiming to grasp his opportunity

JOHNNY WATTERSONfinds the Limerick native in confident mood as he signals his determination to hold on to the coveted number 13 shirt

KEITH EARLS has come to know early in life what perspective and balance is all about. The illness of his new daughter Ella-Maye over the past number of weeks removed the Irish outside centre from the heat of the international team. Now firmly back with family well and his mind focused, Earls is probably hardened and wiser from the whole unwanted experience.

He will need that strength over the next few weeks as his burgeoning partnership with Gordon D’Arcy further cements. While Brian O’Driscoll’s shoulder will ensure Earls will have a long enough run in the 13 jersey to possibly make his passage back to the team more difficult, it has always been the Munster players plan to secure a position he might one day call his own.

He has not fortuitously fallen into the shirt as a makeshift because O’Driscoll isn’t around. The position has always been Earls’s business because since arriving home from New Zealand he has made it that way.

“You know I’ve been playing there (13) all my life,” he says. “Obviously I’ve played on the wing a couple of times in the last few years, which was down to my versatility – playing on the wing and going in to fullback at times. So I spoke to Tony McGahan when I came back from the World Cup and said that I wanted to be a 13. I feel more comfortable. I want to be in the mix defensive-wise and get confidence.”

Earls knows the dimensions of O’Driscoll’s ability but he has set his mind on it and is intent on not just coughing it up when the captain is fit again.

While the French pair of Rougerie and Fofana will provide different challenges and more demanding attention next week in Paris, he’s pleasantly satisfied how the relationship with D’Arcy is progressing.

“He is a good guy to run off and he is a fella I trust loads in defence. We’re starting to gel together,” he says.

“Without having watched it I think we worked well together. In attack, even a few line breaks. In defence there were no issues.

“We haven’t played with each other that much and he is used to Drico, so it will take a while. We’re confident with each other and we know each other well.

“I don’t think we did anything bad and our confidence will only build.

“Of course Rougerie and Fofana are good players. But we’re getting confident. The Italian backline, they have been improving, they’re not like years ago and you have to respect everyone. Benvenuti, he’s a great player – he’s young, he’s got good feet.

“I know it is a different test with Rougerie next week. We’ll enjoy this victory and have a look at the video on Monday.”

It helps too if D’Arcy is on song as he was on Saturday. Work ethic aside, an aspect of his game never in question, D’Arcy had one of his better matches in a green jersey for some time, while the match was Earls’s first in five weeks.

“He is happy, he is buzzing around the dressing room,” said Earls. “For a fella with his standards, I don’t think he has had a bad game – maybe the last one or two he has made a few mistakes – but you know Darce, he has high expectations of himself. He is a world-class player and he just showed it again.”

The try will have helped his progress and is well-timed too. After his last match for Ireland in the fraught World Cup quarter-final against Wales, Earls became his own biggest critic and questioned the quality of his defending.

“I just made a couple of mistakes in defence in the World Cup. No excuses but I should have gone off that time when I got hit by Jamie Roberts,” he says.

“It would have been easier for me to go off but I wanted to stay on and help the lads and I made a couple of silly decisions,” he says.

“But that happens in rugby. I just wanted to get out there and prove everyone wrong and show everyone I am capable of taking over from Brian and 13 is my position. I felt good in my defence today and it is something I have been working on since I got back from the World Cup. I know my attack is there but I’ve been using Donnacha Ryan as a battering ram for me during training so it is all about defence from here on in for me.”

In many ways the last few weeks and the match was the beginning of a new chapter for Earls in life and career.

Having a baby daughter and now acquiring the shirt might encourage some people to stop and pause. But that’s not the way with professional rugby. There is little room for halting with the French challenge now looming.

“Yeah, we’re happy,” he says. “That (Italy) was a big scoreline for us. After the Welsh game fellas wanted to get out and prove themselves.

“There were a lot of bruised bodies at the end with the physicality. But we’re happy, it’s a good note on which to be going into the Stade de France next week.”