The one percent.

Keith Earls’ game has come on leaps and bounds this season. The Munster winger is playing some of the best rugby of his career, and has played a huge role for both club and country this season.

He’s been speaking to the media a lot this season, detailing what’s different for him. From finally finding a happy playing weight, to being relaxed now going into every game. It’s all beginning to really come together. And it couldn’t be happening to a nicer fella.

An area of his game that has been highlighted a lot recently is his ability under the high ball. Earls says a lot of that is down to pressure being put on him by the likes of Andrew Conway and Darren Sweetnam at Munster. Both players are masters themselves in the air.

“It is something we have been working on and I suppose it’s the likes of Andrew Conway, Sweets and the boys in Munster putting pressure on me. It is a big part of rugby now,” Earls said yesterday at Carton House.

But the Moyross man has been doing some special training himself too. Eye training that is.

“I have been doing a lot of eye training as well so I can see the ball running at high speed. It’s a massive part of the game and thankfully from the work we’ve put in, some of the results have come through in games.”

“Putting an ‘x’ on the window and moving your head back and forward, getting your eyes balanced with the gel in your ears so that when you’re running at high speed that the ball isn’t…you’re trying to look for it. I think I said it last week, that it is quite hard to see a ball running at high speed so look, I’m at an age now where every one percent counts!”

Earls says some of the lads would be looking at him thinking ‘what is this fella at?’ But for him, it’s about that one percent. Anything he can do to improve his game, anything that might give him an advantage over his opponent.

“You can do it at home and some of the lads would be looking at me in the physio room saying ‘what the hell is this fella doing staring at an x on the window’. I’ve had a couple of bangs on the head a couple of years ago which kind of knocked my eyes out of sync with the gel in the ears so I went to the balance centre in Dublin and got a few exercises.

“I’ve done them for a while, left them behind and I’m back into it again, it’s something I’ve been doing constantly the last couple of weeks.”

“Like I said I’m looking for the 1% in everything and at the moment I am seeing the ball a lot more clearer in the air as I’m running, there’s still loads to improve on as well. Look, I’ll keep working away at it.”