Ben bids to make Tigers great again
BEN YOUNGS says he never had any intention of joining the ‘gang of five’ in leaving Leicester.
Youngs, 30, signed a new deal of undisclosed length this week and could now see out the rest of his career at the Tigers – unlike his good friend and England team-mate Manu Tuilagi, Kyle Eastmond, Telusa Veainu, Greg Bateman and Noel Reid, who all refused to agree to reduced terms.
Youngs said: “My dad (Nick) played here, my brother (Tom) plays here, and I love playing here; we get great crowds, and we’ve now got Steve (Borthwick, head coach).
“Yes, we’ve had three seasons or so when it’s been tough, but you don’t just jump ship because it gets tough.
“I played during those three years and I feel a massive responsibility to turn that around.”
An academy graduate, scrum-half Youngs has 13 years of unbroken service at Tigers – he was the club’s youngest-ever league player when he ran out for his debut at Bristol in April 2007 at 17 years and 231 days – but the England and Lions international did admit he was tempted away once.
Bristol were strongly linked with the 101-cap star, but the prospective move came while his brother’s wife, Tiffany, was battling cancer.
“I did have an opportunity to go, one time, and I really weighed it up and thought about it, but ultimately, it wasn’t the right time, and I decided not to pursue that,” he revealed.
It is hard to imagine Youngs playing in anything other than green, red and white and he says himself he’d be proud to call himself a ‘one-club man’. “I speak to Tom Croft, who is a great friend of mine and is someone who has played his whole career at Leicester, and I’ve asked him if he’s had any regrets about potentially not trying to go somewhere else and he absolutely does not. He is proud to be a one-club man and, hopefully, I’ve got an opportunity to do that.”
If anything, Youngs is more dyed-in-thewool Leicester than ever, despite the club’s struggles.
The arrival of former England coach Borthwick, left, and South Africa’s World Cupwinning athletic performance head coach, Aled Walters, is a big factor in that.
“With Steve and Aled, we’ve got a great coaching setup,” he said. “Steve will give us unbelievable clarity and the best thing is, he’ll improve guys as rugby players and make us better equipped to perform.
“Working with Aled, obviously he comes with a huge amount of experience and is a proven guy in terms of getting guys in physical shape. I think, come the 15th of August, the squad will be in real good shape and ready to hit the ground.
“We’ll have to work hard to iron out some bad habits we’ve had over the last few years, but everything is in place to make us successful again.
“If we don’t fulfil our potential under those guys then, as a playing group, we’ve let ourselves down and we haven’t stepped up to the challenge.”
Youngs added: “What we want is everything that was good about the old Leicester but to make it new. I think in the last couple of years we got stuck in our past and thinking that was enough, and it wasn’t.
“You saw the work that Steve did with England in Japan, and there is no better bloke at layering that on to make sure we are heading in an upward curve.”
Feeling invigorated by the enforced rest due to Covid-19, Youngs said he still has plenty left in the tank when it comes to international rugby.
England’s second-most capped player is just one appearance short of 100 for his country and 15 behind matching Jason Leonard’s record.
“I’ve still absolutely got the ambition to play for England. Two things either give up – your body or your mind in rugby – and right now neither of them are giving up so I feel in a good place moving forward.
“The enforced rest maybe added a couple of years to my career.”