For every Six Nations warrior the advice of the great Roman statesman Cicero still rings true. “Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.” Resilience and character will eventually win more titles than fleeting brilliance, as England’s Ben Earl has had to remind himself at various times. World-class gladiators are not built overnight.
In Earl’s case, patience has definitely been required. Having been among those jettisoned in the Eddie Jones era, he was not involved when England won at the Stadio Olimpico two years ago. Even last year he played only 28 minutes off the bench against the Azzurri. Now here he is, among the first names on England’s teamsheet and a player around whom others are being invited to rally.
And why not? Earl was his country’s standout player at the recent World Cup: fit, rapid, dynamic and endlessly energetic. His trademark “little win” celebrations may not be to all tastes but they reflect a man of serious ambition. “I’ve made no secret that I want to try to become one of the best players in the world,” he says, almost matter-of-factly. “I want to be around that conversation. I want to become someone who is spoken about when people talk about the best players in my position.”
Aim high and even if you fall short there can be no regrets. And if Ardie Savea, the all-action All Black, France’s Grégory Alldritt and Ireland’s Caelan Doris are the modern ‘dukes’ among Test No 8s, the 26-year-old Earl has his sights firmly set on a storming Six Nations. “I’ve only had one good tournament. I don’t want to be the one who does that and then everyone forgets it. I want to become a really established international player.”
A similarly can-do streak runs right through the Earl family. His younger brother James is on a golf scholarship in the United States and hopes to turn pro later this year; his mother, Belinda, was the youngest ever chief executive of a FTSE 500 company. Neither of his parents were overly ecstatic when their Tonbridge-educated son, who has a degree in comparative literature, was considering a career in pro rugby. “Initially, when I was 15 or 16, they didn’t even want me to become a rugby player. They just wanted me to be a normal bloke who’d go to university.”
When Earl’s Test career abruptly stalled three years ago, therefore, it was a low moment. “What the narrative wants is for you to clock off and say: ‘It’s not going to be for me.’ Suddenly you’re 28 or 29 and you’re that ‘nearly guy’. I didn’t want that to happen to me.” Instead, with the help of the former England back-rower Calum Clark, now a wellbeing and player development guru for several Saracens players, he refocused on the mental and physical aspects of his game to try to be more consistent. “Maybe my worst performance used to be a 3 or a 4. Now, since I’ve started working with Calum, it’s a 5 or 6. And we’ve still got so much more work to do. Professional players now are ambitious blokes. They want to [propel] themselves into folklore.”
The World Cup offered a glimpse of the fitness levels and commitment required to make that sizeable leap. Aside from the squad’s North v South “Ryder Cup” golf tournament in Le Touquet – “The South won!” – his favourite moment came in the semi-final when he and George Martin combined to stop Franco Mostert and force a timely Springbok turnover. “George tackled him more than I did but it’s something I’ll remember for a long time.”
Rising above the absence of his Saracens teammate Owen Farrell is the next challenge. Farrell’s decision to step aside from Test rugby, reckons Earl, reflects poorly on the boo-boys. “Things have been said about Owen and his character that are so far from the truth it’s incredible. He’s a great teammate, a great friend, a great dad, a great guy. Some of the stuff during the World Cup was completely unfounded. On the rugby side he’s the most competitive, knowledgeable, skilful player I’ve had the privilege of playing with.”
It leaves players such as Earl with something of a professional dilemma. On the one hand the abuse of leading players is disturbing. “Players are quite happy for people to comment on their rugby. Where it gets hurtful is when you start talking about people’s character, families, upbringing, race …” On the other, England’s players are looking to open up more to the public. “Society is changing and rugby has been potentially quite slow to adapt to that. We have to be willing to allow people to see a bit more of our personalities. Then they’ll realise we’re not all gym-loving, meat-loving maniacs. Which some of us are, by the way.”
That said, there is still a part of Earl, an avid reader of crime fiction, that relishes the anonymity of living in Queen’s Park in north-west London. “You’ve got to be careful what you wish for. I’m not sure if you’re sitting there on a Wednesday night with a pint of Guinness that you want to be spotted then.” And if some disapprove of him celebrating like he’s won the lotto when England win a scrum put-in then tough. “What’s that saying? The moment you start listening to those people the quicker you become one of them. Have I got the balance wrong before? Yeah, I have. Definitely. But it’s something I’ll continue to use to motivate the team. If a teammate said ‘I don’t like you doing that’ then I’ll stop but it’s never happened so …”
Increasingly he also fancies the idea of a post-playing career in sport, having just begun a two-year sports directorship masters at Manchester Metropolitan University. “I had a bit of a penny drop moment … we were in an airport lounge and saw [the former Fiji Olympic sevens coach] Ben Ryan walking in with the Brentford football team. I thought that was pretty cool.” For now, though, there are more immediate challenges. “We were a pretty unsettled group this time last year. Now we’ve probably got more of an identity. People are prouder of calling ourselves the England team after what we did in the autumn.
“It’s early days but in training you can see how good we could be. I guess there are two things: can we start well – we’ve started poorly over the last couple of years – and can we get better week on week? If we do that we’ll probably have a good tournament. In the past we’ve talked about being guests at someone else’s party when our opposition have been going for a grand slam or a title. Why can’t that be us?”
