Van Graan gives Earls thumbs up to return

JOHANN VAN GRAAN says all he can ask of his Munster team in Sunday’s titanic European semi-final against Racing 92 is that they produce the effort that toppled Toulon — and he is confident that Keith Earls will be there to help them. The Ireland winger is in the form of his career, but was taken off in the Grand Slam clincher at Twickenham last month with a knee injury. There were fears he would be out for the remainder of this season, but Van Graan yesterday confirmed positive reports of his fitness. The Munster head coach was asked about the possibility of Earls facing Racing in Bordeaux on Sunday. ‘I think it’s realistic,’ he replied. ‘Obviously he hasn’t trained. He’ll be on the field with the team tomorrow and Thursday, and we’ll make a call after that. ‘I really hope that he’s going to be good. I think that he’s been in fantastic form. He wants to be right but at the end of the day we’ll make a good decision putting the player first. ‘And if he’s 100 per cent ready to go, we’ll put him on the field.’ His return would be a terrific

boost to Munster’s chances, allowing Van Graan to pick a strong back three featuring Simon Zebo and Andrew Conway with Earls. There are hopes back-row forward Jack O’Donoghue will also be fit to play. Earls is the only member of the squad with a European Cup medal, won a decade ago in Munster’s second continental triumph. It will take more than Earls’ return to defeat the French super-club, but Van Graan said he couldn’t demand any more of his team than they produced in beating Toulon. ‘The coaching staff, the players and the management team gave their all against Toulon. It turned out to be enough. ‘As a coach, you can’t ask for anything more. What I can ask is we prepare well, we start at zero, we prepare all week. We don’t play the game before Sunday.’ One area where he is demanding vigilance is in his team’s discipline. ‘We’ve been working very hard on our discipline especially away from home. We only conceded six penalties on the week to our opponents’ 12 [against the Cheetahs in the Pro14]. ‘In any knockout game, three-pointers are massive. Then you have to win your set-pieces, and I think mostly you have to exit out of your half.’