England's Ben Earl says certain members of the squad admitted they have not been "pulling their weight" amid a disappointing string of results in the Six Nations.Â
Steve Borthwick's side are coming off heavy back-to-back defeats to Scotland at Murrayfield and Ireland at Twickenham to leave them out of title contention with two rounds remaining.
They are now gearing up to face Italy in Rome with hopes of a bounce back performance at the Stadio Olimpico.
"These are the weeks where boys have a little glint in their eye. They mean business," said British and Irish Lions back row Earl. "You look at some of the big guys in our squad and go 'something good is coming'. We're all hoping that is going to materialise on Saturday.
"It's come from within. If we're being honest, there's been some challenge from within the playing group. A few of us had a meeting last Wednesday and we've stripped it bare.
"There are people in the squad who don't feel like they've pulled their weight or performed well enough. Some people have come forward and said they need to be a lot better at this or have been a bit off on that.
"Once you get that out there, it's about how you move forward. There's no point sulking about it."
Earl described the last two weeks as a "big moment" in England's journey, and insists it is a group of players equipped to respond to challenges from both inside and outside its walls.
Some inspiration arrived this week in the form of an appearance from recent Winter Olympic skeleton champion Matt Weston, who shared his own experiences with adversity.
"We talked a lot about his four-year journey from Beijing four years ago to going to Milan and dealing with the disappointment of what he put out in Beijing to what he went and achieved in Milan," said Earl.
"So talking about the parallels of that and preparation, planning, how success isn't just one straight upward curve, he dealt with some pretty tough lessons over the last four years to put him in great stead for what is probably the most important thing, which is the Olympics."
Weston recently became the first British athlete to win two gold medals at the same Winter Olympics as he triumphed in both the individual and mixed team events in Skeleton.
"That's sort of what resonated with us, you're going to have setbacks in your four-year cycle going to a World Cup," Earl continued. "You're going to have moments where you go, that was an amazing lesson for us at the time. And looking back on it, it wasn't enjoyable, but we needed it.
"That's how we're spinning a little bit of where we're at the moment. We've had some amazing times in the shirt. Last couple of weeks have been some tough times, but we can't lose focus. We can't lose hope in terms of where this team is going, and it's going somewhere great."
