IRELAND BOSS ANDY Farrell has revealed that he had to dissuade Keith Earls from retiring 18 months ago.
35-year-old Earls was yesterday named in Ireland’s final 33-man World Cup squad, having been convinced not to hang up his boots at the end of the 2021/22 season.
Rather than calling it a day at that stage, Earls signed an extension to his IRFU contract until the end of the upcoming World Cup.
And while he had an injury-hit 2022/23 season, Earls returned for Munster towards the end of their URC-winning campaign and has now secured his place in Farrell’s squad for the World Cup in France.
Yesterday, after Farrell discussed some of the younger players who made his squad or pushed hard for places, the Ireland coach hailed Earls’ remarkable journey.
“You go to the other end of the scale and Keith Earls… I had a conversation 18 months ago to try to stop him from retiring,” said Farrell.
“He’s certainly come through the other side. He’s been outstanding over the last nine weeks as regards giving to the squad his whole self, his experience, etc., but at the same time being as fit and excited as I’ve ever seen him. You go from one extreme to the other.”
Earls will play in his fourth World Cup having recently become a centurion for Ireland, marking his 100th cap with his 36th Test try against England two weekends ago.
The Limerick man pulled out of Saturday’s win over Samoa due to a “minor niggle” but Farrell said Earls would have played if it was a bigger game at the World Cup. He can look forward to a few of those now.
On the other end of the scale, Farrell has been pleased to see 22-year-old lock Joe McCarthy and 23-year-old out-half Jack Crowley, the two youngest members of the squad, taking their chances to earn World Cup places.
“Go back to the Emerging Ireland tour, the South African tour [last year], and you know everyone knew how hard that was, how hard a time it was for Irish rugby because there was a little bit of fallout,” said Farrell.
“Have a look at what’s come from that, the experience of sending a kid over to grasp what it takes to be an international player and seeing how they run with that experience for the rest of the season – can they make it into the first team in their province, and not just start but thrive in that type of pressure?
“I think that’s been an extraordinary story if you ask me in regards to Jack Crowley and Joe McCarthy and Nashy [Calvin Nash] who has obviously been in with us in camp, and Tom Stewart and more players as well who are going to benefit.”
