Earls to return for French trip
Ireland captain Paul O'Connell shows his disappointment after Ireland's 6 Nations loss to Wales in the Aviva Stadium on Sunday
KEITH Earls is to return to the Irish rugby squad this week ahead of their trip to Paris to play France in the 6 Nations.
Earls missed the disappointing loss to Wales on Sunday because his infant daughter, Ella-Maye, was sick in hospital but he is going to link up with the squad again and should be a contender to go straight back into the starting team.
Earls was named at outside centre but his place was taken by Leinster’s Fergus McFadden. With Declan Kidney likely to change his backline after the disappointing performance against Wales, Earls could feature in the centre or on the wing, where he excelled during last year’s World Cup in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Ireland captain Paul O’Connell has refused to put Ireland’s defeat solely down to the late penalty given away by Stephen Ferris. O’Connell also refused to be drawn on whether it should even have been a penalty.
O’Connell was close to Ferris when the flanker made the pivotal tackle, judged to have been illegal and dangerous. “He [Ferris] hasn’t said a lot about it yet,” said O’Connell. “I’d have to watch the video before I could make a decision. I was right beside it and I wouldn’t know if it was right or wrong. I didn’t know there was a problem straight away. But I haven’t seen it on video.
“I don’t think it [Ferris tackle] was the winning and losing of the game,” explained the captain. “I missed a tackle myself for their try late in the game and we probably gave them a lot of ball early on we shouldn’t have. If you’re going to leave it come down to one decision, pick out one player then you are not operating well as a team.
“There was disappointment. I think we put ourselves in a position to win the game and we conceded eight points in that five minutes and that’s what cost us the game, not that one incident.
“I think we conceded a lot of momentum in the first half and gave them a lot of belief. We probably didn’t defend with our heads up like we should. Our scramble defence was really good but we got caught on the short side once or twice. We gave them a lot of momentum and struggled to get into the game in that first half. It took us a while before we got a foothold on territory and play a bit of ball ourselves.
“When we did we scored a good try. You can’t do that. You can’t give a team that length of time with ball in hand. It puts you under a lot of pressure.”
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Limerick
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.