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'I want to be part of the World Cup in 2023': Ben Youngs eyes long-term mortgage over England's halfback position

By PA
Ben Youngs cover

Ben Youngs has mentally reset his caps total to zero as he targets the ultimate goal of being a part of England’s 2023 World Cup quest.

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Youngs joined Jason Leonard in the ranks of red rose Test centurions with a two-try, man-of-the-match performance when Italy were defeated 34-5 at the Stadio Olimpico last month.

England were later crowned Six Nations champions and having only recently turned 31, Eddie Jones’ first choice scrum-half is determined to extend his international career well into a second decade.

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Ryan Wilson tells The Offload panel about Scotland’s 2018 test against England

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Ryan Wilson tells The Offload panel about Scotland’s 2018 test against England

Jones on Thursday morning names his team to face Georgia in this weekend’s Autumn Nations Cup opener and Youngs wants to be involved as he casts himself as a rookie in search of his debut.

“The short-term goal is Georgia. Long-term, I want to be part of the World Cup in 2023,” the Lions half-back said.

“It’s a long-term goal but there’s a lot that can happen between now and then so I will take it one game at a time, but I do without doubt want to be a part of it in 2023.

“After the Italy game, I gave myself the opportunity afterwards to absorb what had happened.

“I remember distinctly when I played my 50th that I made it into something that it wasn’t in going out there, playing really well and justifying why I got 50.

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“So I guess experience helped when I got to 100 because I treated it like another game, I just played.

“Afterwards I allowed myself to absorb everything and appreciate what I had done. I then wanted to have a clean slate, start again and envision that I’m starting from one again.

“This is my first week in camp and I’ve got the opportunity to get one cap. I have used it as a reset.

“People can have various ways of looking at it and doing it, but that’s the approach I’ve gone with.”

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Youngs has been England’s preferred nine for the majority of the last decade and he still has a clear edge on his closest rivals.

Dan Robson was supreme for Wasps last season and won his third cap after an 18-month absence when he replaced Youngs in Rome, but he owed his place on the bench to Willi Heinz’s calf problem.

Heinz is admired by Jones but at 33 he is in the twilight of his career and must still overcome his latest injury setback. Alex Mitchell, meanwhile, is seen as a prospect for the future.

It narrows the immediate options to Youngs and Robson with the former’s experience, control, nose for the try-line and command of his forwards elevating him above his rival.

“I got experience at Test level at a young age. You can get out there a bit earlier as a scrum-half,” Youngs said.

“I don’t see myself yet as the guy who is mid-30s and still trying to figure out ways of staying at the top. I still see myself as the 31-year-old that is full of enthusiasm and desire to get better.

“You can look anywhere for athletes who are still at the top of their game – Roger Federer, Richard Wigglesworth, (Cristiano) Ronaldo – but I don’t feel right now that is something I need to focus on. I’m not at that stage yet.

“A lot of it’s in the mind. With this squad we’ve got an unbelievable group of young, enthusiastic guys and I can feed off that.

“They have the real bit between their teeth and I’m really enjoying being a part of it, trying to help them because I know that if I help them, they’ll help me.”

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Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

39 Go to comments
A
Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

39 Go to comments
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