Common theme emerges as Youngs and Ford name greatest halfback combo

Longstanding England halfback partners Ben Youngs and George Ford have named their greatest ever 9-10 combinations.

With 221 England caps between them, many of which playing together at scrumhalf and flyhalf, the pair know a thing or two about great combinations.

The key, according to Youngs, is to have players that play together for their clubs, and their list of the top five combinations is evidence of that.

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In fact, only one partnership in their top five, the All Blacks combination of Aaron Smith and Dan Carter, did not play club rugby together.

Ford recently joined Youngs and Dan Cole on the For the Love of Rugby podcast, where they made their list.

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Two Australian combinations were included, the George Gregan – Stephen Larkham link and the Will Genia – Quade Cooper duo, who played for the Brumbies and the Reds (and still the Hanazono Kintetsu Liners), respectively.

Antoine Dupont’s partnership with Romain Ntamack is the only current axis that made their list (specifying that it was prime Genia and Cooper), with the pair driving both Toulouse and France.

Youngs and Ford included themselves on the list, but even then, that does not buck the trend of partners playing club level together, as they both spent many years at Leicester Tigers.

“Aaron Smith and Dan Carter are definitely in there,” Ford said.

Youngs added: “Definitely in there. Agree, they won a couple of World Cups together. Without doubt, they’re in the top five. Smith and Dan Carter, didn’t play together at club level though, but they are in it.”

“I’d say prime Genia and Quade Cooper, yeah. They did play together at club and still are, out in Japan.

“Great combination.”

Ford said: “These guys are still playing, but Dupont and Ntamack are very good, very. I mean Dupont, best player in the world. Obviously, they play at Toulouse together.”

“Gregan and Larkham—legendary,” said Youngs. “It has to be. It’s iconic. Obviously, they played at the Brumbies together, won a couple of Super Rugby titles, Australian legends.”

“I think we’ll put ourselves in it. Yeah, I think myself and George are going in the top five because I’m picking my top five. It’s our podcast, and I want us in it, so there we go. And George is part of the pod family, so George, we’ve made it.”

The pair continued to include some honourable mentions.

“Obviously, [Johnny] Sexton and [Conor] Murray is a combination,” said Youngs. “You’ve got [Peter] Stringer and [Ronan] O’Gara if you want to go back to that.”

Ford added: “Mike Phillips and Dan Biggar, had a couple of successful years, Grand Slams. They were tough to play against, weren’t they?”

Youngs continued: “Like I said, there’s a bit of a theme here. A lot of these synergies. At international level, if you want to nail it, get your halfbacks playing together week in, week out.”

“Would you go Faf de Klerk and Pollard as well? Two World Cups, you can’t argue with that.”