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The Andy Farrell intervention as Keith Earls' career hung in the balance
By PA
Ireland boss Andy Farrell has revealed he persuaded World Cup-bound wing Keith Earls not to retire.
Munster veteran Earls is preparing for his fourth trip to rugby’s leading tournament after being named in Ireland’s 33-man squad for France ahead of Ulster’s Jacob Stockdale.
The 35-year-old celebrated his 100th cap by coming off the bench to claim his 36th Test try in the 29-10 Dublin win over England earlier this month.
Earls wrote in his 2021 autobiography that he came close to calling it a day with immediate effect the previous year amid breathing difficulties caused by restricted lung capacity.
According to Farrell, Ireland’s second-highest try scorer, behind Brian O’Driscoll, was again considering hanging up his boots last year.
Asked which of his squad members made up the most ground to secure a place on the plane, the head coach name-checked the likes of tournament debutants Jack Crowley and Joe McCarthy before mentioning 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 but at the same time being as fit and excited as I’ve ever seen him.”
Earls went more than a year without international action following Ireland’s 2022 tour success in New Zealand amid injury problems before lining up against Italy at the start of the month.
He withdrew ahead of Saturday evening’s 17-13 warm-up win over Samoa in Bayonne due to a “niggle” but is now preparing for Ireland’s World Cup opener against Romania on September 9.
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Yeah it what respects? I wasn’t impressed with his start the the season either, but at least on his return he used his running game a couple of times, so some of his negative aspects balanced out, were at the start it was pretty much all wrong moves no right moves.
Go to commentsGP Ennor debuted for the ABs several years ago and has never really impressed. The same for Crusaders, has been fine without really standing out. Hes somewhat injury prone which is a real shame as he had a lot of potential but sadly has never kicked on.
Havili is a very good super player but we’ve seen more than enough of him at test level to see that he’ll never be special at that level.
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