KEITH EARLS/INTERVIEW:  KEITH EARLS yesterday found himself both where he has always wanted to be and in a place he has tried to avoid.

A debut Ireland cap means the camera-and-question spotlight and while this week's first choice fullback, placed between his media chaperones, Brian O'Driscoll and Declan Kidney, spoke welcoming but humble words, his position centre stage talking about the life and times of Keith Earls appeared a lot less certain than his recent eloquent performances for Munster.

Kidney declared the start of his regime change with the selection of a team that left a room full of cynics wide-eyed with curious delight and the wonderfully balanced Earls, shadowed closely by Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney, were his trump cards.

"It was a surprise to be included in the 15," said Earls self-consciously.

"I was hoping maybe just to get into the 22 but Declan has great trust in me and opted for me at full back."

His use of the phrase "great trust" rather than "trust" or "some trust" suggests coach and pupil have spent time together and from that association, Earls rightly gains strength.

There were few if any who would begrudge the Young Munster player his first crack in the position, even with Kearney, Geordan Murphy and Girvan Dempsey likely disgusted they were ever over-looked for the position. Murphy and Dempsey have done little wrong to be totally excluded but Earls has been irresistible and if anything, at yesterday's love-in at the castle in Killiney, the strong men either side of him were tempering the frenzy.

"Keep doing what he's doing," was Kidney's typical, never over-elaborate advice.

"Keith has been working away for two and half years. He's been in the limelight over the last few months, doing very well. But he'd being doing that in training over the last year and a bit. He doesn't have to come out and do anything special next Saturday. He just needs to keep doing what he has been doing."

No, no, no, no.

The coach has always done a good line in steering discussions that may wander into the territory of fawning praise or hysteria, towards calmer waters. But yesterday he had left good players on the bench for Earls and was pushed hard to share his thinking.

"He comes into the line at the right time," explained Kidney.

"His lines of running have been good. The speed he's shown has been good. His kicking game has been good . . . that's a lot of things isn't it? I'd better balance that out with a few other things. He's getting picked because he deserves to be picked. We'll try not to make it any harder for him, building it up."

Earls was told of his selection yesterday morning and immediately phoned his father Ger with the news. The former Young Munster flanker, who played for the province and in 1993 earned an AIL medal when his Limerick side beat St Mary's in the final league match to snatch the trophy, may well look on his own career and lament that he may have narrowly missed out on the green jersey that has fallen so gently into his son's lap at 21 years old. That the match against Canada will also be played in Thomond Park, adds additional sparkle to the occasion. The ground is just minutes walk from the house where Earls grew up.

"I think I've improved a small bit (since last season)," he says.

"I don't think I've nailed down a position yet. I've been played in three different positions for Munster, at fullback, wing and centre. I'm just enjoying it, trying to do the basics, nothing special. Declan was my first professional coach and he said to me 'just get the basics right and go off from there'."

Kidney acknowledged the strong temptation was there to select Dempsey or Murphy but said the longer-term view and national imperative was to build a panel where playing the positions strongly takes precedent over players' preferences.

"I think he's probably been the in-form back in Ireland this year," said the Ireland captain O'Driscoll, another game-breaking player who has found his dancing shoes.

"He's a very exciting player. I don't want to build things up too much because it is about growing into international rugby. But at the same time I know if he can get those basics right, I know he can create things as well."

Earls also goes into the game never having played a competitive senior match with any of the back line except outhalf Ronan O'Gara, although, he has played at schools level with Luke Fitzgerald.

Winger Tommy Bowe and scrumhalf Eoin Reddan play in Wales and England respectively, while the other three line out with Leinster.

Earls has also been moved around positions by Munster coach Tony McGahan as well as by Kidney during last week's training sessions in Limerick.

The entire back line selection could well end up becoming a very live experiment.

Still, there appears to be a determined enthusiasm for it as well as the interesting selections of Tony Buckley and Stephen Ferris in the pack.

"I don't really change anything about my life now than when I'm playing with Munster," says Earls, head up but looking at the table.

"I've done the same thing as I've always done . . . but it's strange people coming up to you in the street. It's good."

Doubtlessly he is now where he has always wanted to be and despite the attention and the media demands in a place where he may already be feeling comfortable.