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Ben Earl has admitted that England have “laid it bare” with the squad confronting a few tough truths in the wake of their Six Nations defeat to Ireland as they search for a reaction against Italy this weekend.
England’s title hopes were all but ended by a second consecutive defeat as the visitors won 42-21 at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium last weekend.
Steve Borthwick’s squad reassembled briefly last week to review the game and Earl revealed that a number of members of the squad admitted they had not reached the levels required against Scotland and Ireland.
“If we’re being honest, there’s been some challenge from within the playing group,” Earl stressed. “A few of us had a meeting last Wednesday and laid it bare.
“There are people in the squad who don’t feel they’ve pulled their weight or performed well enough. Once you get that out there, it’s about how you move forward. There’s no point sulking about it. Like I said there’s not been a refocusing because we’re always focused. But there’s been something different which has been great.
“It’s not necessarily that many people. It’s more the nature of how it’s done. Some people have come forward and said they need to be a lot better at this or been a bit off on this. We’ve stripped it bare. Again, hopefully it’s something we can look back on again when we play more big games over the next 18 months and we can say, ‘I won’t forget those conversations’.
“I don’t want to say it’s a turning point. I don’t want to downplay it. But it’s another big moment on our journey, what’s happened over the past couple of weeks. It’s a good lesson for us. Hopefully we can go out there and do it on Saturday.”
Borthwick is believed to be considering sweeping changes to his side to face Italy, with the backline likely for a total overhaul. Fin Smith, who sat out training on Monday with illness but should be fit to feature in the rest of the week, is thought to be under consideration for a start at fly half, while Seb Atkinson is understood to be set for a place in the starting midfield.
Earl’s comments also reflected, however, a desire from some of the senior members of the squad to give a better account of themselves in Rome after back-to-back defeats to end their 12-match winning run.
“These are the weeks where boys have a little glint in their eye,” Earl explained. “They mean business. You look at some of the big guys in our squad and go, ‘something good is coming’. We are all hoping that is going to materialise on Saturday.
“We've actually spoken a lot about the intangible stuff around our game. Stuff that when you're winning and things are going well and when you're fighting with each other out in the field, you just take for granted. For whatever reason we've been dealt with a couple of sucker punches over the last couple of weeks with some charged down kicks and stuff. We just haven't really reacted how we want to as a team.”
Earl will win his 50th cap on Saturday at the Stadio Olimpico six years on from making his international debut during the 2020 Six Nations.
The back rower had to bide his time to earn a starting opportunity, waiting more than three years before the moment arrived ahead of the 2023 World Cup, but has since become a central figure at No 8.
“It’s crept up on me,” Earl admitted of the milestone. “It felt like yesterday I was playing against Argentina in Marseille in that World Cup game and blink and I’m here.
“It has been an amazing journey in terms of some unbelievable highs and some unbelievable lows but I wouldn’t change it for the world. My appreciation and my love of playing for my country has never been higher. I always thought, ‘this is going to be the best bit, this is going to be the best bit’. And it just keeps getting better.
“It’s been great and I’ve loved it. I’d love to win on the weekend and have a good day, because a few of us really felt we let Maro down on his 100th, which is a far bigger occasion than this will be.”