Youngs says victory is another stepping stone on way to No 1 status
Scrum-half delivers superb display but acclaims Jones Dressing room confidence high and ‘more to come’
Scrum-half Ben Youngs believes that England have taken another step on their mission to become World No 1 after claiming the long-prized scalp of the Springboks at Twickenham.
Youngs delivered his best performance in an England shirt since he burst on to the scene in 2010 against Australia. His box kicking was superb while he twice sold dummies to the South Africa defence which resulted in tries for George Ford and Owen Farrell, although he was keen to pass credit on to England coach Eddie Jones. “Eddie has been brilliant at instilling team belief and also instils a lot of self-belief and today was an example of how much I am enjoying my rugby,” Youngs said.
With Ireland beating New Zealand in Chicago last week, England now possess the longest active winning run – standing at 11 games – to further close the gap on the All Blacks’ No 1 status.
“South Africa are a huge rugby nation and beating them will give this team another layer of confidence,” Youngs said. “It is another step of building to where we want to get to. That is number one in the world and that is another step, but to get there we need to control the ball better, have better discipline and want to put teams under more pressure. But there is a lot more to come from us and that is the overriding feeling in the dressing room. We got the result and our campaign under way with a win.”
It is a mark of both the improvement that Eddie Jones has delivered since his appointment, as well as the sad decline of the Springboks, that England won without ever truly getting into top gear against opponents whom they had not beaten in 12 previous attempts.
South Africa had led for much of the first quarter by capitalising on some lax English discipline that led to referee Jérôme Garcès warning captain Dylan Hartley. England, though, regrouped and took command through Courtney Lawes’s try. After that they barely looked back.
“In terms of our start we were ill-disciplined and we allowed them to get good easy field position,” Youngs said.
“I felt that we were able to come up with solutions and sort it out pretty quickly. It was greasy so it was better without the ball at times than it was with it. There is more to come from us without a doubt, we haven’t beaten South Africa for 10 years so we are delighted with that.”
In their previous Test, South Africa lost 57-15 to New Zealand at home and Springbok captain Adriaan Strauss says England still lag behind the All Blacks in the style stakes.
“They are both quality teams,” Strauss said. “England do not play highrisk rugby but they execute well. They are clinical and effective in what they do. They play a pressure-type game with those contestable kicks, putting your rucks under pressure and working hard. Both teams have different styles of playing but they are the best two in the world at the moment.”
Strauss agreed that England had suffocated his side. “There was no specific moment but test rugby is about pressure and we couldn’t handle it,” he said. “They got out of their territory well and they tested our defence from the rucks and we weren’t up to it.
“We knew what was coming but they executed very well. England are very effective in what they do, good rucks, good kicking, but we could have defended better.”
The good news for South Africa head coach Allister Coetzee is that his next game is against Italy, a team South Africa have never lost against and who were blown away by New Zealand in Rome yesterday.
“We need to get a win, that gives the team belief in the structures and what we are trying to do,” Coetzee said.
“There may be a few changes and hopefully that will bring some energy.
“We were right in there for 30 minutes today but we paid the price for not doing certain basics right.”