THUMBS UP FOR 2016
Earls is on a roll again following Thomond scare
TWO worrying exits strapped up on stadium stretchers inside 18 weeks, along with a pair of concussions in a 10-week spell either side of the World Cup, is hardly the imagery that goes hand-inhand with declaring 2015 as a very successful year. Unless you are Keith Earls.
In the Munster man’s eyes, the fact he kept bouncing back and repeatedly got himself fit again was a triumph in itself after 2014’s annus horribilis.
Back than, a troublesome knee injury meant Earls went eight months without making an appearance for Munster, a decommission that left him further away than ever from getting a first lookin on the Ireland scene under Joe Schmidt, having been last capped during the March 2013 loss in Italy that heralded the end of the Declan Kidney reign.
However, tentative first recovery steps taken 12 months ago in Parma became the unlikely catalyst for a calendar year of riches featuring, not only a return to form during 20 appearances with Munster, but also catching the eye of Schmidt, turning a lean period of 29 months in the international wilderness into the Test feast that was becoming Ireland’s all-time record World Cup try-scorer and one of just two players who started all five of his country’s matches at England 2015. Pleasing? You bet. ‘I was delighted,’ he admits, a smirk lighting up his face. ‘When I got my knee done and came back in January, you were setting goals and they are all kind of small goals just to get me through the rest of the season.
‘Then when I came back that summer, I had goals to get into Joe’s 31-man squad, give myself the best opportunity to make that squad and then into his 23 and then into his starting XV.
‘It all came good for me, but it goes back to having confidence again in my body. I had a great routine with my weights and rehab, studying my detail. It just let me play on the weekend which was great.
‘I’m going nearly a full year and have gotten to know my body. With the knee it kept breaking down but if I have an issue now I will say it to the coaches, “Look, I need to sort this out, I don’t want to be training halfinjured”. Thankfully, I haven’t even had to do that, so I have complete faith in my body now.’
That complete faith helped Earls quickly draw a line under the scars of battle, such as the late August knockout suffered when his head got on the wrong side when tackling Welsh winger George North, which led to him being wheeled away at Aviva Stadium.
The medical response was similarly meticulous 12 days ago at Thomond Park, Earls again departing immobilised and strapped to a stretcher board, but the reaction was merely precautionary on this occasion after a collision with Eoin Reddan against Leinster.
‘I heard a crack in my neck and thought about my kids straight away,’ he explains.
‘I said I better lay still here. The lads got out to me then, went through a few bits and I could move my hands.
‘I didn’t have any weird feelings, just a small bit of tightness in my chest but that was more like a panic attack after hearing the crack in my neck, adds Earls.
‘Thankfully, everything was fine. I told them I was fine and asked could I get up, but they said: “No, once you have heard a crack we’re not going to let you get up”. I went out and got x-rays, but I was showering with some of the lads (after the game).
‘My fiancée wasn’t at the game. One of the kids was at home sick with a chest infection, so it [the wave to the crowd as he was stretchered away] was just to let them know I was okay.
‘I could see when my father came down to me he was devastated. If he had hair, he would have lost it.
‘I gave them all a bit of a fright but thankfully it was good… I was a bit embarrassed as well: the old man
‘I heard a crack in my neck and thought about my kids straight away’
wasn’t happy when there was nothing wrong with me!’
Back on his feet to ring in the new year with confidence, Earls was at Carton last Sunday when Schmidt tentatively laid out the grand plan for Ireland 2016 with what the 28-year-old described as a session where ‘there wasn’t anything too in-depth’.
The ambition is for Ireland to quickly pick up the thread when they reassemble for the Six Nations but Earls, whose provincial contract expires this summer, knows there is much work to do in Europe first, starting tomorrow in Paris with Munster’s mustwin trip to Stade Francais.
‘Massive, massive game,’ he purrs about the predicament that had the two-time champions staring at a second successive pool stage elimination of they suffer a third loss in four Champions Cup outings.
‘The pressure is on. It’s a new and big pressure for the squad that we have right now.
‘Probably a couple of years ago Munster would have been used to it, but for this squad it is the biggest game of our Munster careers.
‘Stade are a physical side like all French teams, but their counterattacking ability, they play like a real French team with French flair and off-loading.
‘They will be a tough team to defend if we go off and try and do things on our own.
‘Trying to stop the continuity of their game is the main thing. They have got a lot of big personalities and a lot of experienced fellas,’ he adds.
‘It’s going to be a tough one but one we’re looking forward to.’