"We're testing fan's patience" – Ben Earl: England back row understands the fan frustration after Australia defeat

11/11/2024 07:25 AM

England back row Ben Earl fully understands the frustration, that is being felt by the fans of Steve Borthwick’s side. England have had an agonising start to their Autumn Nations Series, with defeats to New Zealand and Australia decided in the final play of the match.

It was George Ford’s missed drop goal that took the scrutiny spotlight a fortnight ago, as England squandered an eight point lead to succumb a loss from the All Blacks. This past Saturday was thankfully not pinpointed upon a particular player, yet England once again failed to close out a victory, after fighting tooth and nail to reclaim their lead. Early in the first half, England sped away to a stunning 15-3 lead against Australia, before the Wallabies battled back for a 20-18 advantage at half-time.

The Wallabies kept their lead in the high scoring encounter until the 79th minute, as lock Maro Itoje battered his way over the whitewash to surely snatch a dramatic victory. However, England’s vice-captain dropped the following kick-off, with the Wallabies regaining possession at the scrum. Joe Schmidt’s side shifted the ball wide and Max Jorgensen cantered down-field to score in the corner for a breath-taking end to the game.

It was an eery sense of deja vu for England, with Earl amongst the 80,000 fans left frustrated following the final whistle. The Saracen wore his heart on his sleeve in the post match media session, and expressed his understanding to how the England fans feel.

“Yeah it feels like we won the game twice and then managed to lose it. Yeah, frustrating. Not same old problems, different problems, but same overwhelming feeling of another game that we’ve let slip. So, some food for thought.”

“Oh yeah, we’re testing fans’ patience, testing our patience, testing your guys’ (media) patience. It doesn’t feel like it’s a lack of effort, it really doesn’t. It just feels like every game is just throwing a different scenario, situation, feeling that we might not have experienced before as a team.

“You’ve got to kind of say the same thing you said last week. We’ll have to go through some more hurt to find our way through it, and maybe, hopefully, look back over the next couple of weeks and months and years and say that was a really important lesson, this game, last game. You just hope that’s the case.”

This was the fourth consecutive defeat for England, if you cast your mind back to the two narrow defeats against New Zealand in the Summer. The two-match series saw back-to-back battles end in All Black triumphs, with just one point between the two sides in Dunedin (16-15), before New Zealand achieved more breathing space to continue their 30-year unbeaten run at Eden Park (24-17).

“It felt different.” Earl continued. “It felt like we were in control. It never felt looking around that group that we weren’t going to win the game. I guess that has to be a positive in terms of there was no one looking over their shoulder being like, 'we’ve been in this position before and lost.'

“So that’s a positive. I think it’s just, again, there are different challenges, different curveballs, different questions being posed of this team. Again, we’ve come up short answer-wise.”

England were forced to shuffle their back row ahead of schedule against the Wallabies, after Tom Curry was knocked unconscious in a nasty looking head injury. The Sale man put his head on the wrong side of Rob Valentini’s powering leg drive, and caught a knee square to the skull before scarily losing consciousness under the bright lights of the Allianz. Thankfully the flanker was able to walk off the pitch under his own feet, and Earl provided a re-assuring update on his back-row brother in arms.

“Well, firstly, Tom’s all right. I’ve been speaking to him in the changing room, most importantly, and it’s brilliant that he’s back on his feet. Tom’s literally a one of a kind player. There’s not many like Tom. So to lose him means that you might have to shift focus, balance. I thought Alex Dombrandt came on and did incredibly well. He brings a different skill set that no one has in our pack.

“I actually thought we as a back row dealt with some of the changes and the way the game went really well. I thought we ran well, I thought we moved well, covered each other’s mistakes. I think we can be pleased with that.”

It was impressive to see Valentini prioritise Curry’s safety after the collision, than think about building on Australia’s attacking possession. The Wallabies back row called to the referee to stop his side’s attack, and bring the match to a halt with Curry on the deck. Earl certainly has respect for the Brumbies man and picked him out as a stand out in the Australian squad.

“He’s a brilliant player. We know he’s a big energy go-forward giver for them. I thought he was exceptional today. And, again, another person who, when we gave them opportunities to play well, they did. So, yeah, fair play to them.”

England are now in the unenviable position of rallying a response, with the tough test of South Africa coming in over the horizon. Steve Borthwick’s side take on the Springboks this Saturday, in their third match of the Autumn Nations Series. England are understandably the underdogs heading into this match, yet the side has profited in recent matches after being ‘written off’.

England fans would like to remember the image of Marcus Smith slotting the decisive drop goal, as he secured a dramatic win over Ireland in the 2024 Six Nations. This was the last time England won at match at the Allianz Stadium, with undeterred by any remarks that favour the Springboks ahead of Saturday’s clash.

“I don’t know what’s going to be written, but tomorrow morning will be some interesting headlines, I’m sure. This team’s always been brilliant at responding when questions have been asked of us and our character. And we need to respond.

“We don’t want to respond just to change headlines, we want to win. We want to win for our fans. We want to win for ourselves, because, it’s a bit of a tedious feeling coming into the sheds for a second time in consecutive weeks and feeling like it’s another game that’s there to win.”

“I think we know that when we’re on the song, we can beat anyone. We can beat anyone. So there is never a foregone conclusion in Test match rugby.

If rugby games were 75 minutes long, we’d be two from two and this would be a very different feeling. Unfortunately, they’re not. We’ve got to front up to that, but yeah, what a challenge next week and something to get really excited about.”

Whilst England head coach Steve Borthwick is arguably not the most ’emotive’ man in world rugby, Earl can safely vouch that he will have plenty to say after the defeat to the Wallabies. The Saracen expressed how whilst he has rarely seen his head coach angry, it is not an enjoyable sight to behold on the few occasions in which it’s happened.

“I’ve not seen it too many times. When I’ve seen it, it’s pretty daunting and it makes things change pretty quickly. No, a brilliant manager, a brilliant coach and he’ll come and give us a brilliant plan to try and beat South Africa next week.”

The task at hand remains the same for England, in how they are eyeing up their incoming Test against the back-to-back World Champions. Despite the run of losses stringing up to a four in a row now for England, Earl is not concerned and continues to back the way his side prepare for matches, with no challenge bigger than that of South Africa this Saturday.

“Well, what’s perfect is that we’re getting another opportunity to play in front of our amazing fans, at our amazing stadium and try and right some wrongs. That’s all we as a team can ask for, and that’s what we’ll be trying to do next week.”

“Firstly, I don’t think there should be any question about this project. I promise you, this team is going to do great things. This is the most enjoyable environment of professional sport I’ve been in. I love playing for this team.

“At the end of the day, there still needs to be results. So it’s a fine balance, isn’t it? But, yeah, this project; we’re only going to get better. And like I said, hopefully, we look back on this months, weeks, years down the line and say that was the best thing that happened to this team, losing these two tight games. We need to make that happen, that's not just going to happen.”

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