12/17/2023 0 Comments Endurance book earl![]() ![]() "It doesn't happen overnight, but he has worked out what his super strengths are and how he can put that into a game."Įarl took on Borthwick's post-Six Nations advice. "That is where he had his biggest work-on - that transition from being so dominant in the schoolboy game and not always getting his own way in the senior game. "But it is different trying to put that into a senior game. "He was super-confident around his ability," Peel tells BBC Sport. Ian Peel, the Saracens forwards coach, first met Earl when he was playing for England Under-18s. It is vindication for Earl's self-belief and drive to prove himself right. ![]() Against Argentina, he won more turnovers than any other England player. He has had more carries and made more tackles than any other England player so far in the tournament. Earl, whose exuberant celebrations have attracted mirth online, has been one of England's star performers at the Rugby World Cup so far He never stopped, was rewarded with his first start in England's warm-up win over Wales and has since forced his way to first choice. "The moment that you stop performing, you give someone an easy reason not to pick you," he said in May. Sam Simmonds and Zach Mercer, two similarly quick but (relatively) slight back rows, have moved to France and out of England reckoning in recent years.Įarl also entertained the possibility of a move abroad but instead stayed home and stayed the course. It could have been enough to make Earl, who is now 25, consider other options. Those were Earl's 14th and 15th appearances off the bench in an international career that stretched over more than three years but was yet to include a single start. Earl earned just 53 minutes in the 2023 Six Nations campaign, across two replacement appearances, and was sent back to his club with an instruction to get fitter. New coach Borthwick also initially seemed unconvinced. Jones, apparently having then decided that Earl lacked the heft to be a Test forward, subsequently ignored Earl's rampant Premiership form for the final 18 months of his reign. He isn't 6ft 4in, but he is a hybrid-type player, a very modern player."įor a while it seemed Earl was a prototype who would never find a proper place on England's starting grid.Ī fortnight after coming on for his international debut against Scotland in February 2020, then-coach Eddie Jones announced that Earl was covering midfield as well as back row off the bench against Ireland. "I was thinking, with no disrespect, this guy is 20 times the athlete that Steffon Armitage was. They were thinking about him as a hooker potentially, or that they might be able to mould him into the next Steffon Armitage. "They didn't know if he was big enough for the back row. "I remember an academy coach saying they couldn't find any reference points for him," remembers Morgan. Others tried to convince him to switch from the back row to the front. Tonbridge would deploy him at centre at times. His size may by an advantage securing turnovers on the floor, but it is less so in the air as a line-out option. At 6ft tall, he is relatively short for a back row. external-link Earl's schoolboy showreel shows a player of uncommon agility, physicality and pace, steamrolling some tacklers and scorching past others with blowtorch pace.īut Earl's skillset made him hard to categorise. "He was kind of unstoppable." Earl turns his arm over during a warm-up for his club side Saracens "If someone is big, you can get around them, gang tackle them and close the space down, but with Ben it wasn't just size and mass, it was his speed and power. "There were very few people on the pitch who would be able to contain someone like Ben. "He had phenomenal balance, the ability to change direction at quite significant speeds and he was very explosive," remembers Morgan. He and Earl are still close friends.įortunately for England rugby though, and perhaps Australian cricket, Earl opted for the oval ball. In the same shot as Earl is his classmate and future Ashes lynchpin Zak Crawley. There is a photo of Earl a year or so later, external-link as part of a Kent under-13 team.
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