Earls rolls with the changes as Ireland prepare
THE big talking point around the Ireland squad selection for the November series has been the controversial exclusion of Top14-bound Simon Zebo, but according to Keith Earls it’s not something the players themselves have spent too much time chatting about in the halls of their training base in Carton House.
In fact, it’s been a rather relaxed, low-key build-up to Saturday’s opener against South Africa, but as Earls points out, ‘It’s always quieter when he’s [Zebo] not around.’
Just like Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt last week, the Limerick native didn’t want to spend too much time discussing the exclusion of his Munster team-mate, and instead was much happier focusing on the future of this Ireland team, who on Saturday will be able to call on the services of Connacht’s Bundee Aki for the first time, as they take their first real step towards preparations for the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
Just like Zebo’s banishment, the inclusion of the Auckland-born centre hasn’t been warmly accepted in all quarters, but Earls claims that he’s more than happy to have the Connacht star on board, even if it comes at the expense of his own provincial team-mates who have come up through the Irish system, such as Rory Scannell.
‘It doesn’t bother me,’ Earls explains.
‘Bundee’s putting in so much work. He’s on the computers, he’s doing everything he can to get up to speed. It’s great having him around.
‘He’s an experienced player, he’s won Super Rugby with the Chiefs, he’s won a trophy with Connacht, he’s been playing unbelievably, he was player of the year in our league [in 2016], and he’s well enough experienced, so hopefully he’ll get his shot.
‘There’s a lot of competition, it’s only good for us.’
That much is certainly true for Earls, now 30, who seems to thrive under the pressure of trying to hold onto his jersey ahead of the younger chasing pack.
On last summer’s tour of the US and Japan, the Moyross flyer put in some of the best performances of his career, chipping in with four tries across the three matches to provide Schmidt with a timely reminder of his abilities.
‘The young lads now are freaks, they’re bigger, faster and stronger at a younger age, they’re coming through really quick,’ he continues.
‘I go out and try and enjoy every game now individually. But obviously in the summer tour, I was one of the more experienced fellas and I had to lead by example, and show the lads that it was a serious tour — when you’re playing for Ireland there are no easy games, thankfully that worked out for us.’
With so many fresh faces in the squad again, Earls’ leadership could prove crucial against South Africa this weekend, especially given his previous experience of playing the Boks.
And the versatile winger admits he is particularly hungry to get one over on the southern hemisphere side this time around, given how close Ireland came to recording a series win on the summer tour of South Africa in 2016.
‘We have gone back looking at those videos and we were so close to winning a series down there — a lot of it was around our own mistakes that we have, hopefully, learnt from. ‘But, look, it’s going to be a physical game on Saturday. It’s going to be the same, South Africa went through a poor patch there for a while but they seem to have found themselves again and they’re on the up. They’re going to be extremely dangerous and I think they’ll be better than 2016. ‘It doesn’t matter about tries or fancy play, it’s about getting a win at international level and a lot of games come down to discipline and kickers kicking their kicks. It is going to be a close game, there’s going to be pressure on both teams and it’s going to come down to one simple penalty, discipline or a mistake. ‘South Africa have had the last couple of months [together as a squad] on us but we’d be confident enough that we can get ourselves ready for the weekend. ‘We’re all on the one mission now, to try to get the win over South Africa and hopefully get the three wins in November.’ Achieve that, and there will be much less discussion on who should or shouldn’t be in the squad going forward.