Keith Earls finally fulfills his potential in the best season of his professional career

"You just have to accept people for what they are, and I learned the greatest gift of all. The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices that you make will shape your life forever. But you can ask anybody from my neighborhood, and they'll just tell you this is just another Bronx tale" - Calogero 'C' Anello, A Bronx Tale (1993).

Moyross is a considerable distance away from the Bronx borough of New York but the tale of Keith Earls cannot be considered as a story of wasted talent, not after this season. There is nothing worse than wasted talent and for a while there it looked like injuries could have curtailed and hindered the undeniable talent that Earls showed he had since he was a teenager. Here was the story of this remarkably gifted 20-year-old that burst onto provincial scene in Irish Rugby and scored eight tries in 14 Magners League games for Munster in his first full season at Thomond Park - including a scintillating hat-trick against the Dragons at Musgrave Park - and finished his campaign with a call up to the British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdkuVKAm15c Earls was poised to be the heir to Brian O'Driscoll once the former Ireland captain was ready to call time on his international career, but it never quite transpired that way despite his prominent inclusion in both of the 2010 and 2011 Six Nations tournaments, as well as becoming Ireland's leading try scorer at the 2011 Rugby World Cup with five tries in as many games. Earls eventually replaced an injured O'Driscoll in the 2012 Six Nations but he was in and out of the Ireland side for the 2013 campaign before missing the entire 2014 tournament with a knee injury. He then tweaked his knee at an Ireland training camp in August 2014 and missed the first four months of the 2014/15 season before returning in January of 2015 for Munster. This was where it got tricky. He recovered from his knee injury and was available for the 2015 Six Nations but was overlooked in place of Simon Zebo, Jared Payne, Tommy Bowe and Felix Jones as Earls sat and watched from the sidelines as Ireland claimed a second successive Six Nations title under Joe Schmidt. This was a turning point in Earls' career. He was not selected on the 2013 Lions tour of Australia, injuries had begun to have a major impact on his international prospects and he was nearly seven years removed from being the 20-year-old kid that lit up Musgrave Park on that faithful September day in Cork. But he refused to go away. He scored seven tries in 14 games for Munster to finish the 2014/15 season and he forced his way back into the Ireland team for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, where he started every game during that tournament. Earls didn't give up on his cause and Schmidt didn't give up on him either.

"I spoke to Earlsy briefly, and I said to him, ‘This would be your third if you had just glued yourself together a bit earlier,’” said Schmidt after Ireland's 2018 Six Nations win. “It wasn’t for me lacking the want to pick him, it’s just that he had a few mistimed injuries and that can happen to a player. “It was fantastic to have him and for him to get his due reward. He’s been really super for us, and I don’t just mean on the pitch. “I think that’s very visible on the pitch, how sharp he looks, but also off the pitch. He really leads by example, he’s very professional in what he does, prepares really well, communicates well with those younger players. “He’s certainly been a catalyst for some confidence and improvement in that back three.”

Earls re-established himself as Ireland's first-choice winger during both of the 2016 and 2017 Six Nations championships but there was something different about him this season. The Limerick native was seemingly running with more zip. He looked faster, livelier and hungrier than he ever had before. He looked like the 20-year-old kid again. The kid that we, and Ian McGeechan, marveled at all those years ago. But he actually felt like the 13-year-old that ran around Limerick with a level of freedom that only a child can.

“The last 18 months is probably the most I have enjoyed rugby since I was about 13 years of age," said Earls during the Six Nations. "When you’re enjoying something and it doesn’t seem like work you enjoy it a lot more. It is our job, but we think it is everything, which it isn’t.

“As I am getting older I am trying to find the one per cents (gains) between diet, psychology and the visualisation; I have been working a bit with Keith Barry [hypnotist and magician] as well, just trying to get the one per cents, which seem to be working.

“I don’t want to get into the detail but he (Barry) knows the brain better than anyone and (the work we are doing) is just in terms of visualisation and stuff like that.

"It’s down to everything, diet, looking after myself, having the balance of family life and work and then working on the mental side with him. Enda (McNulty) is here (in Ireland camp) and working with him, combining it all together (is beneficial).”

Calogero Anello was right when he said in the Bronx Tale that there is nothing worse than wasted talent but Earls is living proof that there's nothing better than when you see someone on a national stage figure it all out. When they're able to take the experiences they've had in life - the lofty expectations from being a 21-year-old Lions tourist, the setbacks of tournament ending injuries, the death of a close friend and mentor in Anthony Foley - and use those moments to gain a better perspective on their own standing in their sport and ultimately become a better player and a more rounded person. What's better than that? Earls might contend that a PRO14 title would be a welcomed addition to a season where he's already won a Grand Slam with Ireland, Munster's Player Of The Year award and now the 2018 Players’ Player of the Year award, but even if Munster fail to topple rivals Leinster this weekend, Earls has emerged as the big winner in a season where he couldn't lose. A fitting end to what looks like the beginning of a very promising second start.