No One Player Symbolises The New England Better Than Ben Youngs
The Leicester and England scrum-half has improved immensely under Eddie Jones this year, writes Lee Calvert.
England’s amazing year finally comes to an end undefeated. There is still much to work on – the front row, attacking decision making, and the structured defence in the backs to name a few – but for now England fans can simply enjoy the victories and the transformation. In the England ranks, no-one demonstrates this enjoyment and transformation more than Ben Youngs.
Until a year ago, Ben Youngs had an international career that followed every cliché in the promising young England player book: he burst onto the scene looking like a potential world beater, lost a bit of form, was dropped, then brought back in, but indecisively handled by management; everyone shakes their head at what could have been. Twas ever thus. His star dropped so catastrophically that at one point Northampton’s Lee Dickson was selected ahead of him.
A year ago, with this history and with the likes of Joe Simpson in red hot form for Wasps, it was expected Jones, the uber-pacey-attack-minded coach, would gently move on from the Leicester half. Nothing could be further from the truth as Youngs was quickly established as his undisputed number one in the nine shirt and set about righting the listing ship that was his international career.
Jones makes ridiculous statements, it’s what he does. One of the more ridiculous statements early in his reign was that the England squad were 30% fitter within about a week of them being in his first camp. While this was clearly an absurd overstatement, the players do look in better shape; none more so that Youngs, who previously had a tendency to look like he was no stranger to the cake trolley. His renewed zip around the fringes is no coincidence.
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In previous seasons Youngs’ greatest affliction was his speed of service. His pass could usually be described as: Here. Is. The. Ball. I. Am. Going. To. Pass. It. Now. Here. I. Go. Passing. The. Ball. The. Ball. Is. Being. Passed. Right. Now. See. The. Ball. Leave. My. Hands. Not ideal for an international scrum half. This, combined with his tendency to do the two-step crab shuffle before passing, made for some gruesomely frustrating, soul-splintering viewing for fans and coaching staff alike. Jones has stamped this out almost completely and the ball comes out quick, straight from the floor to the grateful hands of George Ford.
The highlight of Youngs’ performance in the victory over Australia at the weekend was his magnificent dummy for his try, where he sold not only the whole shop but a 1000-year lease on the building to not one but three Wallabies defenders. It was the perfect expression of how far he has come under Eddie Jones. He is oozing confidence and dynamism where before he was like a congealed pulp of indecision – passing glacially, kicking poorly and shovelling rubbish.
Not only are his core scrum-half skills a world better than a year ago, but at Twickenham he also showed leadership. The appalling start made by England would, in previous times, be whipped from minor broken eggs into a giant meringue of failure, but Youngs did not allow this to happen. Instead, the newfound belief inspired by the confidence shown in him from day one by his coach saw him take the game by the scruff of the neck and use his influence to drag England back into the match via calm and well-executed box kicking and mashalling of his forwards.
Eddie Jones still has many things to keep him thinking with his England project. It is testament to both his ability and that of Ben Youngs that the matter of who should start at scrum-half is not one of them.
Comments on RugbyPass
Big difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to comments