{"id":95492,"date":"2025-05-12T14:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T14:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/95492\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T14:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T14:03:08","slug":"british-and-irish-lions-ben-earl-welcomes-extra-string-to-his-bow-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/95492\/","title":{"rendered":"British and Irish Lions: Ben Earl welcomes extra ‘string to his bow’ : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Earl has put himself in a strong position for a job with the British & Irish Lions bomb squad this summer, helped by a markedly different attitude to versatility than Austin Healey took a generation ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The England back-row star showcased his hybrid ability for Saracens on Saturday, starting the game against Newcastle as a forward and finishing it as a back.<\/p>\n

He scored a try at number eight, exhibiting the power off the base which made him England<\/a>\u2018s most valuable player at the 2023 World Cup. He then shifted into midfield and bagged a second.<\/p>\n

On a tour to the other side of the world where personnel is limited, versatility is a precious asset. Head coach Andy Farrell has already identified that in his selection of Marcus Smith as a full-back cum fly-half.<\/p>\n

Can play three positions<\/p>\n

Earl<\/a> offers even more options, given his proven international class at openside as well as number eight. Saturday at StoneX bore witness to clear evidence that he can do a decent job in midfield too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to do me any harm,\u201d he admits, when asked whether he feels his ability to play in both pack and back division could be valuable to the Lions in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said I\u2019m pleased to have it as another facet to my game but I\u2019ve got to stay true to what I can do. Regardless of the number on my back or the role I\u2019ve been given, if I can stay true to myself and how I want to play the game, I won\u2019t be too far off it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earl plays down the size of challenge involved in swapping between seven, eight and 12, claiming the requirements of those positions are much the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like with someone like Elliot [Daly],\u201d he says. \u201c13, wing and full-back are three almost different kettles of fish. As a 12 or a seven or an eight, if you run hard, hit hard, carry hard you\u2019re not going to be too far off.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to see me kicking, you\u2019re not going to see me doing some sort of intricate backs play. You\u2019ll see me have a bit of a dig. If that happens, how bad can it be?<\/p>\n

Brian Moore reveals the Lions selection which leaves him \u2018more concerned\u2019 amid Owen Farrell \u2018speculation\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m more of a 12 sometimes than I am a back-rower when I\u2019m playing. [The hybrid part] is probably overhyped, but if it\u2019s a string to my bow then so be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A generation ago England star Healey was the definition of versatility. He played virtually every position in the backline yet regarded it more as a curse than a blessing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no word I hate more in the English language, in fact from now on I will refer to it as v*********y,\u201d he wrote in his 2001 autobiography Lions<\/a>, Tigers and Roses: The Austin Healey Story.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think it means you can do a lot of things but you can\u2019t actually do any of them all that well. As a result you end up on the bench. History has not been kind to v*******e players. Most have tended to lose out, certainly out of starting line-ups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rugby has become a 23-man game in the ensuing 24 years. Often success is measured more by the team that finishes than the one which starts. Look at South Africa. They owe a significant chunk of two World Cups to their bomb squad. These days, if your bench replacements do not add value, you tend to lose.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he has to change mindset when the call comes to move to centre from his coach, either Saracens<\/a> boss Mark McCall or England head coach Steve Borthwick, Earl laughs: \u201cOnly whenever there\u2019s a knock-on don\u2019t run towards the scrum!\u201d<\/p>\n

Rest assured, Farrell will take the 27-year old\u2019s versatility very seriously down under, for all the reasons Courtney Lawes stated in a column for The Times earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Lawes on Earl versatility<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this Six Nations has reinforced is that forwards and backs play a different sport,\u201d he wrote. \u201cFrance go 7-1 [on the bench], England go 6-2 because they want to keep the intensity and workrate of their pack as high as possible for 80 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth systems come with injury risk and both rely on utility players. Earl will be so valuable for England in that regard \u2013 and hopefully the British & Irish Lions this summer \u2013 because he is emerging as a genuine inside-centre option.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of always knew that Ben was a back playing as a forward. He\u2019s only really a forward because he\u2019s tenacious enough to play there. If he was a bit less abrasive then he\u2019d probably just be an unbelievable outside centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it doesn\u2019t surprise me at all that he\u2019s done so well. Fundamentally he\u2019s just a skilful rugby player.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see it with the Fijians all the time, they\u2019ll play back-row one week and then on the wing the next or in the centres. If you\u2019ve got the athletes to do it, why not? It\u2019s good for the game. It\u2019s good to be open-minded in what you have in your team and that\u2019s where you unlock your potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Leicester Tigers make shock appointment to replace Michael Cheika as Wallabies lose prized asset<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Earl has put himself in a strong position for a job with the British & Irish Lions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[44733,5313,393,225,522,12,6875,4151,12070,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-95492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-ben-earl","9":"tag-british-and-irish-lions","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-international","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-premiership","15":"tag-rugby","16":"tag-saracens","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114495239327526396","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}