{"id":460748,"date":"2026-03-06T13:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/460748\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T13:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:09:10","slug":"arrogant-ben-earl-absolutely-did-everyones-head-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/460748\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Arrogant\u2019 Ben Earl ‘absolutely did everyone\u2019s head in’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Richard Wigglesworth knew Ben Earl<\/a> was destined for the top from the minute he swaggered into Saracens\u2019 changing room as a self-assured teenager.<\/p>\n

Earl wins his 50th England<\/a> cap in Saturday\u2019s Guinness Six Nations<\/a> showdown with Italy<\/a> at the Stadio Olimpico having become a mainstay of the back row since the 2023 World Cup.<\/p>\n

While currently one of England\u2019s most influential players, his early days at Saracens<\/a> are remembered vividly by Wigglesworth, who at the time was the club\u2019s scrum-half and now serves as Steve Borthwick\u2019s number two.<\/p>\n

\u201cI shared a changing room with an 18-year-old boy coming in. He absolutely did everyone\u2019s head in with his confidence\/arrogance,\u201d defence coach Wigglesworth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe decided to brave it by sitting between me and Chris Ashton<\/a> so that showed what balls he had straight away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe chucked his stuff out of the changing room every day for about two weeks, but he persisted and came back. He was brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would have only been done to someone like him who was right up for it the way he walked into the changing room with a swagger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kid thinks he\u2019s something so you try and bring him down a peg or two, but he instantly got on and we enjoyed having him in that environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was one of those guys you just knew was going to be good, but he almost needed to be whacked into shape in those early years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe trained for a year with us and then he came back the next pre-season and was honestly the best player. We were like \u2018oh my god, this kid is special\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe may have bordered on arrogant and annoying but he\u2019s turned into a confident man and, in my view, very likeable. I\u2019m very proud of him, hopefully we make it a brilliant day for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had it tough early on in his career, but look how good he\u2019s been for England, how consistent he is with big performances at big times. I\u2019m hoping that we see the best of him in his 50th cap.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Wigglesworth knew Ben Earl was destined for the top from the minute he swaggered into Saracens\u2019 changing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-460748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}