'I'm up against it in training' - Ben Youngs on what Scotland will face today against England
Ben Youngs has warned Scotland of the “wave of white shirts” ready to engulf them in Saturday’s historic Calcutta Cup clash.
England launch their Guinness Six Nations title defence with a Twickenham showdown steeped in tradition as the oldest rivalry in international rugby celebrates its 150th anniversary.
The occasion’s historical context has been embraced by Eddie Jones’ men, who are ready to display a unified sense of purpose in suffocating Scotland – and most importantly their fly-half magician Finn Russell.
While England’s attack has rarely ignited over the past year, their ferocious defence has been a pillar of strength.
“When we are in sync and we have that synergy and are going after teams, it’s a wave of white shirts,” said Leicester scrum-half Youngs.
“Whenever a bloke has the ball he gets surrounded and it’s great to be a part of that. You want to play your role. It’s a big strength of ours and it gives us a huge amount of energy.
“When the pack is going forward and rumbling, when our defence is where it needs to be, we are a very tough team to break down and get on the front foot against.”
Youngs, along with back-up scrum-halves Dan Robson and Harry Randall, knows the difficulties in finding a way through.
“I’m up against it a lot in training. Myself, Dan, Harry – we like to run with the ball, like to take people on, and at times you feel you are in a straitjacket,” he said.
“You try to make things happen. To get better in defence you have to force it in training, to go into those areas, to challenge those guys, and you get gobbled up at times.”
England’s biggest challenge in the 139th meeting between the teams will be to stifle Russell, knowing Scotland’s gifted ringmaster can cut defences to ribbons with a floated pass or short chip.
It was Russell who inspired the Scots’ mesmerising comeback at Twickenham two years ago when a 31-0 deficit was transformed into a 38-31 lead, only for a stoppage-time try by George Ford to secure a dramatic draw.
Happy Six Nations day… ?#ENGvSCO has all the hallmarks of an epic encounter, writes @heagneyl ?????????????????https://t.co/hz7DIRHlPj
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 6, 2021
“I don’t think I could deal with it coming down to the last play of the game, like it did last time!” Youngs said.
“We massively respect Scotland and the way they play, with Russell in there who is a bag of tricks.
“Two years ago highlights how dangerous Scotland can be if you sit back and give Finn time on the ball and give guys like Stuart Hogg time and space.
“When you’re previewing Scotland you’re going to mention Finn – look at his short kicking game, long kicking game, his distribution. He takes the line on a lot, he’s a tidy player and we absolutely respect him.
'…the truth is the pressure is all on England and there’d be huge shockwaves around the world of rugby if the Scots were to win.'@AndyGoode10 ??? expects it'll be a 'comfortable victory' for England, despite the historic build-up #ENGvSCO https://t.co/7svav0kild
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 6, 2021
“We’ve done our homework on him. Hopefully that is enough to try and keep him restrained a little bit, but the guy can make things happen.”
While the roller-coaster events of 2019 have left their mark, Youngs refuses to dwell on a staggering collapse that became an important moment in the development of Jones’ England.
“A lot has happened since then – we’ve played a lot of big games and picked up a lot of knowledge since the World Cup,” Youngs said.
“But it does sharpen the mind knowing the threat that they pose if you allow them to dictate their style.”
Comments on RugbyPass
I’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. Second, New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
1 Go to commentsThose are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
1 Go to commentsHonestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
134 Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
8 Go to commentsSon, whith just " raw athlete “ , you are able to beat “ better rugby players “ by 74 points…. May be England should recruit in athletics….
1 Go to commentsPffft. It’s not a one-way street bud and Irish teams don’t seem to have had an issue taking kiwi players previously.
8 Go to commentsParticularly great to have captain Scott Barrett back after going off last week for the Crusaders. Codie Taylor a real leader and mighty Tamaiti Williams join Fletcher Newell in the front row. Those 2 will make a big difference. Great bench with the likes of Tom Christie, Jamie Hannah etc who are playing well. Should be a great derby.
1 Go to commentsDoes a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
134 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
134 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
134 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
8 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
8 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to comments