Ben Earl is a sporting savant. Not only is the Saracens and England back-rower and occasional centre now a British & Irish Lion in rugby union, but Earl played cricket for Kent in his teenage years, was an accomplished swimmer, is launching an attempt to become a scratch golfer – his brother is a pro – and is more than a casual observer when it comes to rugby league. Earl’s involvement in those latter two sports will be addressed presently, but right now there is something more pressing in the wide-ranging world of the 28-year-old: evidence of another string to the bow, but this time not in sport, in academia. Last Friday, Earl submitted a 15,000-word dissertation for his degree in sports directorship from Manchester Met. The content? “Stakeholders’ perception of law changes in rugby union and cricket”. A hot topic, always, in this sport.

“I try and find ways to switch off and I wanted to get back into studying,” Earl, who has 54 caps for England and another two for the Lions, tells Telegraph Sport. “I have never been asked about certain laws, nor the changing of them. The dissertation is mainly about the unintended effects and consequences of law changes.”

Laws will be introduced in November regarding the hip-drop tackle and a reinforcement of existing regulations surrounding the knee-drop equivalent. There will also be extra emphasis on brake foots – covered in Earl’s dissertation, as he believes that the unintended consequence is a far greater load on the neck and hamstring of a hooker – and on the way looseheads bind at scrums. Some of these directives, particularly the hip-drop tackle, will be refereed globally this weekend for the first time.

“If I had given myself another month on my dissertation I would have had more material!” says Earl. “Rugby is a weird sport. Changing laws halfway through the year is... an interesting one. I’m not paid to make the rules.

“But I’m very pleased that the hip-drop tackle will be gone. It’s not a malicious thing but, once you know you cannot do it, it will be gone quickly enough. It’s super dangerous. They are pretty awful.

“The knee one will be interesting. You can’t go too low, but you can’t go too high? It’s an interesting one. As long as I’m using my knee to get down to height, but then back on my feet once I hit, I don’t see a problem with that. I hope it’s when you’re out of control and you’re so low that you cannot wrap, that’s when it gets dangerous. Let’s see.”

‘A professional golfer who plays a bit of rugby on the side’

Earl has grown into a mainstay of Steve Borthwick’s England project, 12 months out from the World Cup. So far this year, he has started all eight of England’s Tests, seven times at No 8 and another at openside. Alongside his rugby consistency, however, Earl has been obsessing over a sport which values consistency and accuracy more than most. Earl’s crusade to become a scratch golfer is well under way, a challenge the back-rower set himself back in September. Earl, currently a four handicap, has given himself a year to cut that down to scratch. Conveniently, that deadline comes as England travel for next year’s World Cup in Australia.

At England’s Pennyhill Park base, Earl and the team are spoilt for choice in terms of golf courses. The back-rower cites Sunningdale, St George’s Hill and Wentworth as three off the top of his head – “Dickie [Luke Cowan-Dickie] has been on to me about playing, golfing heaven around here” – but his next opponent could not be more well-known to even the most casual fan of English sport.

“Ben Stokes and I are going to connect over the next couple of weeks,” says Earl. “But I think I’ve been playing [rugby] a bit better since I’ve been playing more golf, so maybe there is something in that! Any chance you get to turn your brain off, off rugby for however long, golf is a pretty good way of doing it. Four hours or however long it takes to go round. I really have become a professional golfer who plays a bit of rugby on the side.

“Golf is my big off-pitch passion. My family are golf-mad. I had always been this four or five-handicapper who didn’t practise, just played, and played alright. I just thought to myself that now I had finished my uni degree, I’d put some jeopardy in it. Get the world talking about my golf! I joke. I did a post-match visit to a hospitality box at a Sarries’ home game and everyone was just asking me about my golf, not the rugby. A little concerning. I started on September 14 so I need to get [to scratch] the week before we fly to Australia next year.”

Fittingly, Australia are England’s opening opponents in the November stage of the Nations Championship. Playing at Twickenham is always a privilege for Earl but, he stresses, the goal for England is to end November “with a real expectation that we are going to do something special this time next year”.

“Playing at the Allianz... running out there is going to be the thing I miss the most in my career when it ends, whenever it does,” says Earl. “Sharing the changing room with some of the greats who have played the game.

“But, in this camp, I’ve been looking around the room at Pennyhill and thinking: ‘It’s some team we’ve got here if we all get going.’ That’s a really cool place to be. We just need to go and do it.”

One adventure that Earl never went and did was league, another of his sporting interests. Earlier this year, CityAM reported that two of Super League’s biggest clubs, Warrington and Wigan, were circling the Saracen. He rubbished those reports.

“That ship has sailed for me,” says Earl. “I’m on the wrong side of 25, but it’s still a passion and I love watching it.

“There was a crossroads [years ago] where I wasn’t being picked for England and I felt that I was getting cold feet a bit and wanted to try something else. Thankfully, I didn’t go down that route. There was a moment when I would have been very interested in giving it a go, but I stuck with what I loved and I’m pleased I did. There’s nothing I would change about my career; I’ve loved every minute of it.

“No one spoke to me about it and I have no idea where those rumours came from. My focus is fully on rugby union... and golf.” In both of those disciplines, the countdown is on.