YOUNG GUNS
Ben White’s perfect summer would see him playing a lead role for England U20s during a World Cup victory in France next month before returning to Leicester and contesting hard for the shirt of Tigers teammate and incumbent Red Rose No.9, Ben Youngs.
Since becoming Leicester’s youngest ever Premiership player against Harlequins in September 2015, aged 17 years 151 days, White has been battling to deliver on undoubtedly huge potential alongside another Tigers academy starlet, Harry Simmons.
It’s been far from plain sailing. White, 20, said: “I’ve had dribs and drabs of games and featured in the Anglo-Welsh Cup but it’s been a difficult season. You’ve got to strive for the top, though, which means working on your skills and giving yourself the best opportunity.
“Some would see Youngsy being here as a negative, but for me it’s great because you get an opportunity to train with him every day and learn from what he’s doing. You get bits of information that are invaluable and it’s a good stable of scrumhalves we’ve got with Sam Harrison and Harry here as well. It just makes me more determined to succeed.”
White adds: “Matt O’Connor, our head coach, wants me to have a good World Cup with England, get game time under my belt and then come back firing in pre-season. You’ve just got to keep trying to move forwards and give yourself a chance of being picked. My basics are good, now it’s all about showing what I can do and giving Matt no reason not to pick me.”
As a youngster at Orme House School in Newcastle-under-Lyme, White came under the tutelage of Simon Robson, the former Moseley captain and father of Wasps scrumhalf, Dan. White played his junior rugby for Stoke RFC, as Dan once did, before heading to nearby Denstone College, from where he was picked up by Tigers and inducted into their academy.
While his Leicester career has still to flourish, White played in all five Six Nations matches for England U20s this year and got to captain the team against Wales.
He said: “It was an unbelievable feeling to captain that side and it’s something I’ll never forget. Obviously the loss against Scotland cost us the title but I felt throughout the Six Nations we got better and stronger as a team. We showed our character by beating France in Beziers in front of a hostile crowd and we’re a close-knit group with lots of confidence.
“The World Cup is being held in the same part of France so that’s good experience for us and it would be great to be named in the squad. It’s a huge target of mine.”
Youngs is an obvious role model but there are others, with White adding: “Conor Murray’s game-management and box kicking is exceptional and I love the way Aaron Smith plays as well. His speed of ball quality of pass and running game is something I aspire to and if I can get anywhere near the level of those guys, I’ll have a pretty decent career.”