Ben Earl has said he would take a shift to playing at centre against Wales in his stride on Saturday after Steve Borthwick revealed the back-rower is the first cab off the rank in the event of injury.
As England go in search of the bonus-point victory they are likely to need to keep their hopes of winning the Six Nations title alive, the head coach has opted for a 6-2 split on the bench. With three fly-halves in the squad, there is no obvious centre cover and Tommy Freeman is starting there for England for the first time.
Earl played the last six minutes of England’s 47-24 victory over Italy on Sunday at centre and scored the final try. Borthwick first used him in the backline during the emphatic victory over Japan last summer.
Borthwick’s predecessor, Eddie Jones, highlighted Earl’s suitability to playing in the backs and would regularly talk of the future emergence of “hybrid” players, using Jack Nowell’s ability to play at flanker as an example. His theory seems to be coming true with France deploying a 7-1 split in their victory over Ireland on Saturday with Oscar Jégou, a back-rower by trade, excelling for 33 minutes at centre. South Africa, who were the first to name seven forwards on their bench, often deploy Kwagga Smith as a hybrid replacement.
When naming his team, Borthwick said shifting Fin Smith to inside-centre is also an option, raising the tantalising prospect of him, Marcus Smith and George Ford being on the pitch at the same time. But if Fraser Dingwall or Freeman go down early with injury – as Ollie Lawrence did last week – Earl is set to join the backs.
“That’s the magic of the 6-2 I believe. That’s what it gives you,” Borthwick said. “We saw Jégou come on last week. I thought he was tremendous.
“The crossover is crazy between 12 or centre and a back-rower. It’s the same position, you just wear a different number and you defend in a slightly different position off a scrum. That’s the only slight technical difference.”
Earl also revealed he tends to chip in with some backs drills to prepare for the potential switch to midfield. “I do some bits but I don’t do it all because I have a job to do as [a member of the] pack but as and when I will do a bit of training there,” he said. “It is not something you overthink. It is just rugby at the end of the day, half the stuff I do is as a 12 anyway. It is all pretty complementary. It is not too dissimilar.”
Earl has started at openside flanker for England’s past three matches but returns to No 8 on Saturday with the Curry twins in harness from the start. The back-row battle is likely to be key in Cardiff and Earl believes England’s pace gives them a point of difference.
“The thing you are seeing around the park is speed wins,” he said. “France is the classic case, [Louis] Bielle-Biarrey is the quickest person I have seen play the game and every time he gets the ball he can make something happen. Speed seems to be more of a priority to some teams than others but for us, we are talking a lot about moving the ball, being aggressive, outworking teams.
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“[The breakdown] is crucial, there is no attack if you don’t have the ball and where are you going to lose the ball? At the breakdown. I would caveat that by saying what team doesn’t have good jackallers, what team doesn’t have that threat?”
Assuming Ireland secure a bonus point win in Italy, England need to follow suit in Cardiff to move top of the table before France host Scotland. “How does our mindset change? It doesn’t,” said Earl. “Look after our own house first, win, play well, if we can win well even better.
“If that gives us a shot on Saturday then so be it, but we can’t control anything that happens other than underneath that roof. It’s quite liberating in that sense.”