LONG READ Ben Youngs: 'I’m super-proud to have been a one-club man but I don’t look back and wish I was still playing.'

It is funny how retirement changes the prism through which a player views the game. Speak to Ben Youngs while he was still involved with Leicester and England and he would have been adamant coaching was not part of his future. But, having hung up his boots after last season’s Premiership final and moved back with his family to his native Norfolk, Youngs is combining the successful podcast he co-hosts with Dan Cole with a part-time role at his old school Gresham’s as Head of Performance Sport.

Putting the under-18s, 16s and 14s there through their paces though has caused him to reconsider.

“I always thought ‘no’, I wouldn’t want to coach but it has opened my eyes and made me realise that coaching is really good fun,” he said.

“At scrum-half you are a sort of coach on the field anyway without realising it. Now I’m just doing it without running around.

“Maybe for me it won’t be about doing it at professional level but you never know. I have really enjoyed coaching here. I really look forward to getting out on the field and helping the teams. The kids have been so engaging and awesome. It has been really rewarding.”

England’s most-capped men’s player has worked with enough coaches in his decorated career to know what works and what doesn’t. As his autobiography ‘Beyond The Line’, which is published tomorrow, reveals he did not always see eye to eye with them.

Unlike his great scrum-half rival Danny Care, he is a big fan of Eddie Jones but his take on Steve Borthwick, both from his time at the Tigers and with England, is of a data-driven number cruncher with limited emotional intelligence. The contrast in their approach when Youngs was dealing with the death of his sister-in-law Tiff is starkly portrayed in the book.

“I respected Steve as a coach. He is a very good, thorough coach. I just never had a player-coach relationship with him,” said Youngs.

“He has a different way of doing things to an Eddie Jones or a Michael Cheika who I was able to build a relationship with. They bring a lot more of a personal approach to the team and the individual.”

His personal experience, however, does not mean he is unable to appreciate Borthwick’s achievement in winning the series with England in Argentina over the summer.

“I was really impressed with how they went in Argentina and the rugby they played,” said Youngs.

“There is a nice anticipation now ahead of the autumn to see if England can go and win these games where they were just falling short 12 months ago. I can see the upward curve.

When I first started playing for England, guys tended to be cliquey and hang around with their clubmates. You’d keep your head down, stick with who you knew and that was what you did.

“You could really see Lee Blackett’s influence in the summer. You could also see the influence of Byron McGuigan, from Sale, in defence. It was smart of Steve to bring those guys in for the Argentina tour.”

What Youngs sees now is a cohesive England team. For the first six years of his international career, that wasn’t the case.

His debut came under Martin Johnson in 2010. “When I first started playing for England, guys tended to be cliquey and hang around with their clubmates. You’d keep your head down, stick with who you knew and that was what you did,” he said.

“For people on the outside that probably sounds weird but England, at times, can be a challenging and unnerving environment with big stakes and big pressure so you naturally seek out the people you are comfortable with.”

The division continued under Stuart Lancaster. That was, Youngs believes, one of the reasons why the team failed at the 2015 World Cup.

“I think it certainly would have helped in 2015 if we’d been a tighter group and a bit more in tune with each other,” he said. “It wasn’t that we didn’t get on but there were barriers that needed breaking down that weren’t. If you look at most successful teams not everyone is great friends but they have that cohesion and trust that you need in games when the pressure is on.

“We didn’t have that. There would be a Sarries pool, a Leicester pool, a Northampton one then Exeter and Quins. That held back the team.”

When the austere Lancaster regime fell, Jones took over as England’s first overseas coach. The dynamic instantly changed.

“It was Eddie who addressed it in the first meeting we had under him. He told us: ‘Boys, if you’ve got issues that need ironing out, there’s a pub five minutes down the road. Go down there, go have a drink and sort it all out. You’re all adults.’

“We’d just ditched at a World Cup and some of us recognised some of that was down to a lack of trust on the field. We realised that if we were to take the next step we had to change.

I’d have had a hell of a tan, drunk some marvellous red wine and played about six minutes all season shadowing the great Antoine Dupont if I’d gone to Toulouse.

“We had a change in leadership group as well and Dylan Hartley did a really good job in breaking it down and bringing us all together.

“There was a conscious effort to sit with people for dinner and lunch who you wouldn’t normally sit with and to room with players that weren’t from your club. England became a club atmosphere. All the barriers got broken down and they stayed down.”

Youngs ended his career in the summer as a one-club man after 18 years at Leicester but he reveals in his book that he turned down an approach from Toulouse in 2019. Does he harbour any regrets over his loyalty?

“It’s a passing thought. I’d have had a hell of a tan, drunk some marvellous red wine and played about six minutes all season shadowing the great Antoine Dupont if I’d gone to Toulouse,” he said.

“The head says it would have been wonderful playing in the south of France with the sun on my back but then again there’s a lot of players who don’t see out their contracts there and come back and I could have been one of those.

“The timing wasn’t right for me. I had a family pretty young. Our first son Boris came along when I was 25. And it would have been a big upheaval.

“I’ll never know but when it’s all said and done, to play for a great club like Leicester for that many years fills me with joy. I’m super-proud to have been a one-club man. I’m happy with the way it finished up.”

After so long a Tiger, it will be strange to see a Leicester team sheet without the name of Youngs – and his podcast partner Cole – on it this season.

“Things move on quickly. There was a Leicester Tigers after Martin Johnson and the ABC Club and Martin Corry and Geordan Murphy and there will be after us,” said Youngs.

That’s the only thing I will miss – being in good company around good people and being part of a team.

“How will they go this season? There’s no doubt losing Julian Montoya and Handre Pollard would affect any team – and maybe the old heads, myself and Coley, that added a slow tempo game for the last 20 minutes – but they have a really young and enthusiastic squad and some firepower in the backline. Can they put it together? We’ll see. I hope they go great guns. I’ll be excited to watch from a distance and support.”

The page has turned for Youngs. When the PREM kicks off tomorrow evening, he will be content to have finally called time.

“I don’t look back and wish I was still playing,” he said. “It took a lot of effort. Now I’ve walked away I feel super-proud and grateful for the opportunities I had within the game.

“Life moves on and so do your anaerobic capabilities as I’m finding out. I played some casual hockey the other night. It did make me think: ‘Oh my God, how did I ever do some of those fitness tests?’ But it was good fun being in a team environment again. That’s the only thing I will miss – being in good company around good people and being part of a team.”