MUNSTER ARE HOLDING out hope that they can stop the flight of Keith Earls and keep the Ireland international at Thomond Park.

Earls is poised to agree a three-year deal with Aviva Premiership champions Saracens, Ruaidhri O’Connor reports in today’s Irish Independent.

But Munster assistant coach Ian Costello brushed off the reports as “rumour” and “speculation” as the province trained in CIT, and stressed their desire to hang on to the Limerick native.

Costello knows the clock is ticking if the IRFU are to offer Earls an improved deal and convince him to stay at home.

“We heard the speculation this morning as well,” he told Red FM.

“From our point of view, that’s what it is – it’s a rumour, it’s speculation.

“His negotiations are with the IRFU, he’s centrally contracted.

Bottom line is, we want Keith here next year. He’s a quality player, a quality person. So we hope his negotiations with the IRFU are successful over the next 24 hours.

Earls is the latest in a long list of Irish players to be linked with moves abroad, with Leinster duo Ian Madigan and Marty Moore leaving at the end of the season and speculation still surrounding Simon Zebo’s future.

“It’s nearly par for the course that players when they get to this stage of negotiating contracts that they’re linked with different clubs,” Costello continued.

“I don’t know how strong the rumours are, how strong the speculation is.

From our point of view he’s a quality player, a quality person, and we want to keep everybody of that calibre at the club so that we’re as competitive as possible.

“We just hope that business gets done today.”

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