Six Nations 
1
Former mentor Schalk Burger explains what position suits Ben Earl best
By Josh Raisey
For a player that only took hold of the England No8 jersey last summer while Billy Vunipola was banned, Ben Earl seized the opportunity to make the shirt his own.
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A World Cup and a Guinness Six Nations have elapsed since then, and the 26-year-old has established himself as one of the first names on Steve Borthwick’s teamsheet at the back of the scrum.
But his journey to the white No8 shirt has not been an easy one.
Used sparingly as a flanker during Eddie Jones’ tenure, Earl experienced a similar treatment at the beginning of Borthwick’s reign last year when he was axed from the England squad. But his former Saracens teammate Schalk Burger believes this was while he was understanding his own game.
Now he has found his place in the England squad, the South African has praised his former teammate for his “outstanding” Six Nations, where he has been the recipient of the player of the match award in two of his four matches so far.
The 2007 World Cup winner played with Earl in black during the early stages of the Englishman’s career, and mentored him while was establishing himself as a teenager.
Given the strengths that the 29-cap international has, Burger said that Earl is better suited to playing No8 rather than flanker on RPTV’s Boks Office recently, as his “point of difference” is his explosiveness, which can be exploited better at the back of the scrum.
Earl faces stiff competition for that No8 shirt for England with Alex Dombrandt in the squad, Alfie Barbeary rising through the ranks and Zach Mercer surely destined to emerge back on the scene again, but for now it is inconceivable that anyone could prise it away from the Saracen.
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“I thought the World Cup is where he came to the front of everyone’s minds, thinking ‘how good is he?'” Burger said on the podcast.
“He was busting the tackles, running stats, tackle stats, offloads, stepping, metres gained, he was their player of the World Cup no problem. Then you want him to kick on.
“I remember taking him for a few beers, he was a youngster and I was mentoring him at Saracens- a proper talented player.
“It’s taken him a while to understand his own game. He was openside flanker, but I think No8 is his best position, he’s outstanding.
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“He’s got that nice bit of explosiveness and I think at No8, when you’ve got that, you can play forward, you can play back, you can pop up in wider channels. You don’t rev your engine as hard as you do at openside. Openside you’re at that first breakdown, you’re at the next and you work your socks off.
“Sometimes I think with an explosive runner like him, you take away your point of difference. Whereas at No8, when you’re not involved as much as openside, it frees you up to roam about a bit, and he’s been outstanding.”
I find a lot of these conversations a little bit silly. Number 8 and Openside are only fixed positions at scrum time, so there’s no reason players need to stick to them in open play.
If Earl is best scrumming at flanker, but needs to be involved less than a typical openside, then coaches might be able to make that work without switching him to 8.