Last year’s glory forgotten about as Earls aims to keep improving
FOR some sportsmen, past success is an inspiration they can draw on when tackling their future goals. Others will appreciate what they’ve achieved when it’s all over.
Keith Earls had a sensational 2017-18 and, when he does retire, it will be the campaign that features most on his highlights reel.
Voted Players’ Player of the Year, he was a force on the wing for Munster and Ireland and a key leader in the national team’s most successful season as they claimed the Grand Slam and a series win in Australia.
Ask him to show you his medals though and he’d have a hard time finding them.
Both literally and metaphorically, last season is out of sight and out of mind as he focuses in on his return to action against Cardiff Blues on Friday night.
“The trophies and the medals are locked away,” he said of last year’s gongs. “I don’t even keep them out to look at them. I put them away and will maybe look at them when I retire, I keep my focus now on getting better. I enjoyed last year, but once I got to the beach it was about being a father and about relaxing.
“I have set my goals out for this year, but I won’t be pondering about that season. Some do it differently, some like looking at them, but it does not really bother me although the Grand Slam medal I will take that out and look at it, the individual ones, no.
“I always moved on. My thing is team medals and that is what I enjoy most. The celebrations after winning something is what I prefer and then (I) put away the individual ones until I’m done.”
Meanwhile, Dan Leavy will hand Ireland boss Joe Schmidt a timely boost before the official year-long countdown to the Rugby World Cup kicks off tomorrow after the back-rower was declared fit for Leinster’s weekend clash against Edinburgh.
Leinster assistant Felipe Contepomi declared: “He has worked so hard so it’s great to have him back.”
And in more positive news for the Irish coach, Sean O’Brien returned to rugby training with the province yesterday. WHEN he missed out on a place in the Abbey Insurance Ulster Academy over the summer, Angus Kernohan didn’t sit around and feel sorry for himself — he got to work.
And boy has it paid off. After impressing enough to earn a start in pre-season against Gloucester, and then scoring a try against Wasps a week later, Kernohan then found himself on the bench for Ulster’s season opener at home to the Scarlets, a position he has held for all three of their games so far.
A couple of weeks ago he put pen to paper and agreed to join the Academy, and on Sunday afternoon he passed another milestone as he dotted down for his first competitive Ulster try against the Southern Kings.
For someone who, at the start of August, was probably resigning himself to playing another season for Ballymena in the All-Ireland League, it’s safe to say that Kernohan is doing a lot of things right.
Having swapped Eaton Park for the Mandela Bay Stadium, the 19-year-old says he’s thrilled with how the season has gone so far.
“It’s been really good, as I said earlier in the season it’s been a great experience over the summer. I’ve learned so much and I’m just trying to absorb it all,” said Kernohan.
“When there’s great leaders in the team and guys like Henry Speight who’s phenomenal, he teaches you so much and he’s so humble, it’s really easy to learn from them.
“Because it’s a team sport it’s easy to focus on everyone else as well and not concentrate on yourself too much.”
The try itself was almost a carbon copy of the one he scored against Wasps in pre-season, the pacy winger breaking down the blindside off the back of a ruck when the space opened up — the only difference being it was off a maul in Coventry.
It’s that kind of vision to spot that space that has set Kernohan apart — he has shown wisdom beyond his years and has slipped seamlessly into the Ulster set-up.
“We were playing a lot in their 22 and were building a lot of pressure, and they folded around the corner and left a lot of space, so I just shouted to Dave Shanahan, ‘Hit me! Hit me!’ and fortunately he did and I got over in the corner,” he explained.
“It was unbelievable, it really was. It’s nice to be in South Africa, it’s slightly different than playing in Belfast! The weather was beautiful and you can’t ask