"The dam will break and we'll start winning" – England back row Ben Earl eyes a Six Nations narrative change
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England commenced their 2025 Men’s Guinness Six Nations campaign last weekend with plenty of positive signs. A 10-5 lead at half-time over reigning champions Ireland, instilled an array of belief into Steve Borthwick’s side, and for the travelling supporters who had packed themselves into Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. However, a second half lapse of English judgement, was all that Ireland needed to regain their lead for an opening round victory.
In a pattern that continues to look eerily familiar, England took the foot off the gas when they needed to assert more pressure, as their opponent rallied back with for an unobtainable lead. Whilst England fought to the very end with two consolatory tries from Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman, the damage had already been done in the form of Ireland’s 22 unanswered points, to hand Borthwick’s men an opening round defeat in the competition.
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This extends England’s current run of form to just two wins in their past nine Test matches, with the duo of victories coming against Eddie Jones’ Japan in the past Summer Tour and Autumn Series. England back row Ben Earl believes that it is just a matter of time before the side strings together a full 80-minute performance, with the proverbial ‘dam’ set to burst, and open the floodgates to a litany of England victories.
“There's no hiding away, we’re here to win. But at the same time, we have to see where we’re at. There’s players that were playing today (for England) for the first time, there’s players that are playing who haven’t been in the squad for a while. So there’s context to this. There’s new leadership. There’s everything rolled into one. That’s not to make excuses, but I think you can see how we could go and win that game.
“That’s been the same for a number of different fixtures over the last like eight or nine but at some point – and I know I keep saying this – the dam will break and we’ll start winning them. Then this whole narrative changes.”
“We’re evolving. How well do we attack today? How well did we break them down? That is one of the best teams in the world (Ireland), if not the best, how many times did we break them? I thought that was really exciting.”
England are now preparing for their second round of the competition, as they host France at the Allianz Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The last time Les Bleus arrived in Twickenham it was a truly unforgettable fixture, as France handed England their heaviest ever home defeat, as the final score-line read 53-10 to the visitors. That match from the 2023 Six Nations certainly left scars upon the England players, with Earl expressing how his side has endured plenty of hurt as a group.
“This group is still amazingly tight. We’ve played a lot together. We’ve been through a lot of hurt together. We spoke about this week, we’ve been through a lot of hurt. There’s no denying that we’re trying to give our all. It’s never been for a lack of effort.
“Hopefully, and I trust there will be, because I trust in Steve, I trust in the players that we’ve got, that the dam will break and we’ll start getting momentum. The Six Nations is about momentum, winning Test matches is about momentum. We just need to get one. We’ll wait till that, and we’ll keep turning up. We’re not disheartened.”
“At 50 minutes in, 13-10, the game's right in the balance, a proper test match. If you knew then what we know now, in terms of how they (Ireland) were going to score their two tries to stretch that lead to 17, of course you’d love to have that again. But we can’t. This is the experience piece. This is the thing where we go away and we get better, so that next week against France – and we saw how good they were on Friday, we’ll give them a good go.”
France made a serious statement of intent in their opening round match, as Fabien Galthie’s side handed Wales an emphatic 43-0 defeat in Paris. Earl expects another tough encounter this Saturday, with the Saracens back row hammering home the importance of England’s mentality for the week. Whilst it would be easy for the back row to wallow in the Dublin defeat, Earl views the Test with France as an opportunity for himself and his side to rise to the challenge that France will bring.
“No one wants to come in here and talk about us losing, no one. You can either choose to just say, ‘This is rubbish’, and let it chip away at your mindset next week, and we’ve still got another four games to play. Or, we can say, ‘let’s try and use it in the right way. Let’s try and learn from what we fell short on this week, grow as a team, keep competing, keep evolving week on week, and we’ll see where we’re at’.
“But the moment you start going, ‘This is rubbish’… I’d rather not have this feeling. I’d rather not put myself in this vulnerable position. You don’t want to be here do you.”
There was plenty of discussion around England’s inexperienced squad following the opening round defeat, with both Earl and his England head coach Steve Borthwick expressing how the side is still evolving in their respective media sessions. However, whilst it would be nice to simply add 100 caps worth of Test match rugby to the new-coming talents, Earl appreciates that this is a learning curve that England are investing in for the long term.
“We had a bit more inexperience out there today and I thought we learned again another harsh lesson in terms of, maybe we had 10 minutes where we lost a little bit of control, a little bit of what we’ve done really well in the first half.
“It turned round and the game was all but gone away from us. It went to 27-10 at one point and that happened in five to ten minutes. Fair play to Ireland. The way we lost was in a slightly different manner, in terms of one really well-run strike play and the other one was just a couple of individual errors – and all of a sudden we’re 17 points down.”
“I wouldn’t always just say inexperience is a negative thing. I think there’s like a youthful exuberance around this team at the moment. We saw that in the way that we scrapped in that first half. That was as good as we’ve been. I had images of that South Africa game in the semi-finals in 2023 (Rugby World Cup), in terms of how we fought for each other, how we ran for each other.
“So, you can’t just magic up 100 caps for everyone. But the way that we’re playing, the way that we’re trying to be aggressive in attack, comes a little bit from our youthful exuberance as well.”
Part of the inexperienced crop of England players is back row Tom Willis, who earned just his second Test cap in the defeat to Ireland. Willis replaced Earl in a like for like number eight swap, despite the previous speculation that the Saracens teammates would share the back row, with Earl shifting across to the flank. Despite not sharing the pitch with his Sarries teammate, Earl has been impressed by the fast tracked rise of Tom Willis.
“Steve’s (Borthwick) very good at managing making sure everyone’s had repetitions with each other. It wasn’t clear how it was going to play out. Tom has been brilliant this year, hasn’t he, and the back row is as competitive as it’s been. I think it’s a brilliant sign for English rugby. Tom did really well when he came on. It’s just rewards for how well he’s been playing. So I’m really pleased for him.”
“It’s frustrating watching. Any player would rather be playing rather than watching but that’s the magic of the 6-2 split isn’t it? It gives Steve a bit more flexibility in terms of what direction he thinks the game’s going in. It was me and Ben this time and it might be different next game but whatever the team needs, I’m happy to do it.”
The breakdown was a stand out area of England’s game, despite the eventual defeat to Ireland in the opening round. Earl sounded off by expressing his delight at how his fellow back rowers operated over the ball, with Willis and the Curry brothers all getting in on the turnover action.
“I don’t think that (Marcus Smith yellow) had anything to do with the breakdown. I personally thought it worked really well. We got into the sheds at 40 and were thinking 'this is actually as much fun as we’ve had on the rugby pitch for a long time'.
“We dovetailed really nicely. Ben and Tom tackled their hearts out and that allowed me to get my hands on the ball a little bit more than the other two and I thought it worked really well. We got to 80 minutes and both said we really enjoyed it. So I thought it worked really well. Again, we got some change. I think everyone got a steal at the breakdown. Maybe Tom got a couple more than myself and Ben.”
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