KEITH EARLS MAY have given Joe Schmidt a welcome selection headache with his two-try performance against Romania today, going on to equal Brian O’Driscoll’s Irish record of seven World Cup tries.
And the Munster winger said that crossing the whitewash in such a comprehensive win was extra-special, given the record crowd turning Wembley green.
89,297 fans, most of whom were Irish filled out Wembley Stadium for a record World Cup attendance, and Earls says it was a dream come through to line out in front of them.
“It was phenomenal, you dream about it as a young lad, playing in front of 89,000 Irish supporters, it was great,” he said to TV3 after the game.
Earls and his fellow winger Tommy Bowe both bagged a brace of tries, which is bound to give Joe Schmidt plenty to think about when he considers his team selection for the bigger games against Italy and France in the coming weeks.
However, Earls said that neither he nor Bowe would have been able to flourish were it not for other players creating chances to attack.
“It’s thanks to the lads that are around me as well, it’s comfortable. It’s the team, it’s all about the team with us and you see it, some unbelievable skill from Zeebs and Redzer (Eoin Reddan) to put me away, and the same with Tommy, the boys inside us made us look good today.
“I’m looking after myself, that’s the main thing. I’m staying healthy I’m keeptoing my head down and I just want to play every week.”
“You could see all the boys were good today. As I said, all I can do is go out there and play to the best of my ability and hopefully give Joe a headache.
After scoring twice, Earls made a brief departure after what at the time appeared to be a concussion check.
However, Earls says that he’s feeling perfectly fine, after “jarring” his neck in a tackle.
It was fine, I just took a bang to the neck, that’s all. It actually happened in the first half, running into one of the forwards from the Romania side. Kind of poor technique out of myself, flashbacks to the Welsh game, but all’s good and the head’s fine, I just jarred the neck a bit.
