RUGBY HAS HELPED ME TO TACKLE DYSLEXIA
England scrum half Ben Youngs opens up on his struggles at school, happy families and farming
You never want to let your team-mates down but even more so when one is your brother
NEXT to the hoardings for crop fertilisers and Norfolk ale, there will always be someone ready to bend your ear about a tiny seven-year-old side-stepping his way towards the try line, ball under one arm, waving to his mother with the other.
That boy at Holt RFC was Ben Youngs, who is inked in at scrumhalf when England open their World Cup campaign against Fiji at Twickenham on September 18.
For the purposes of this interview, Youngs is back in north Norfolk where he grew up. Holt is a 15-minute ride from the resort of Sheringham and half a mile from his old school Gresham’s, where fees can rise to £32,000.
Nerves in those days for Youngs were not over a big match — but standing in front of the class to read. ‘That was probably my worst nightmare,’ he said. ‘I struggled academically because I suffer from dyslexia, like a lot of rugby players. My brother and my dad do. Sport was always the escape route. Having a ball in my hand was the best thing that could happen to let me express myself.’
Not that Ben, 25, and his brother, hooker Tom, 28 — whose selection in the squad makes the Leicester boys only the second brace of brothers to represent England in a World Cup after Rory and Tony Underwood — don’t have something for which to thank their father Nick’s gene pool.
Nick, a scrum half, played for Leicester and six times for England in the Eighties. He encouraged the boys to play team sports. ‘Participation with your mates and all the add-ons that go with it are what I wanted them to experience,’ he said, as Ben drove him to the beach for the accompanying pictures.
For Ben, who was very small until he was 16, hockey, athletics and rugby took centre stage. Quick off the mark, he broke Gresham’s 200 metres record set on sports day by his godfather 25 years before.
A close-knit family background is central to the story of the Youngs. Ben and Tom are two of 28 first cousins, their mother Patricia ( whom everybody calls ‘ Trot’) being the youngest of six sisters.
All ages and sizes of the cousins played rugby at Holt and that enthusiasm spilt over when they got back to the family farm in Aylsham, where their grandfather Gerry made posts out of irrigation pipes so they could continue to play ferociously. While Ben loved rugby, he was less keen on the family’s other business — farming.
‘He didn’t want to talk about John Deere tractors,’ recalled Nick. ‘He wanted to talk about women.
‘Tom is fanatical about farming. He lives for it. When summer came he would be out at 7am the morning after breaking up from school.
‘ I thought I’d give them a morning works from 9-12 pulling up beet. It was not pleasant work and that three hours would be enough. They could then have the afternoon off. I came back at about 10.30. I could see Tom and things being pulled out. “Where the hell’s Ben got to?” I wondered.
‘I walked into the field, walked and walked and walked, and there was Ben lying back in a pair of sunglasses, in the crops so I couldn’t see him sunbathing. That typifies him.’ As Ben says: ‘Farming — a great lifestyle, but not for me.’
Rugby apart, life for Ben now revolves around his wife Charlotte and their baby Boris. It is one of just a few high- profile marital unions with the Youngs’ cousins. Flanker Tom Croft is married to their cousin Harriet, and prop Dan Cole to cousin Isobel.
Ben’s scintillating form was a feature of England’s Six Nations campaign that finished with the breathtaking 55-35 win over France, in which he scored two tries. But how does he think England will cope with the pressures of a home World Cup given their dismal performance on and off the pitch four years ago?
‘Quite a few of the guys experienced that World Cup,’ said Ben. ‘The big difference is that with this being a home World Cup we have the opportunity to escape. When you are in New Zealand and flick on the TV, there is a school game on; flick on to another channel and it’s a college game.
‘Yes, everything to do with this World Cup will be magnified because it is at home. But we get Wednesdays off and, unlike in 2011 when that meant being in and around a hotel all day, there is nothing stopping me going to Leicester or Norfolk on Tuesday evening.
‘I could then walk along a beach a few days before a massive game. You can see your friends, family and be re-energised and ready to go.’
The tantalising prospect is of Youngs re- creating his half-back partnership with George Ford, a former Leicester colleague and a friend from age-group rugby. It was their symbiotic relationship that made England sparkle in that Six Nations win over France.
‘Stuart Lancaster certainly has the ambition to continue to play in an entertaining style,’ said Youngs of the head coach’s philosophy. ‘But we have to be able to show our forward dominance at times, not losing what England rugby has been good at — mauling, the scrum — because that is the foundation of everything. We want to play both styles, adapting as we need to.’
Most of Youngs’ big family will be clamouring to be at all of England’s games. Nick, who has followed the last three Lions tours and England home and abroad, said: ‘How can it get any better than watching two sons playing for England?
‘But every time I go to Twickenham I think this could be the last time. A career does not last long. I think we are so bloody lucky.
‘Poor Trot gets very worried about it, wondering what people might think if either of them has a bad game. I think all mothers do. Your ask George Ford’s mum or Owen Farrell’s mum how they feel when their son steps up to take a kick. I’m fine. I just say when it’s going brilliantly, it’s brilliant. There are times when form can dip and you have to learn to ride the storm.’
It may be that Trot will opt to spend time looking after her grandchildren for at least part of the World Cup rather than watching from the stands.
While we walk along the Norfolk beach, among the crab boats and fishermen’s rods, Ben is stopped by the mother of a friend. She wishes him luck and tells him not to get injured. The homespun and the international collide again.
‘Playing for England is fantastic anyway,’ said Ben. ‘In a team sport you don’t want to let your mates down. But even more so with your brother. I don’t want to let him down in my department and he doesn’t want to let me down in his.
‘It’s a great bond, a great feeling, knowing that we have ticked the box for each other.’ Ben Youngs is an ambassador for LV= supporting the #rugbyfamily campaign. Join the #rugbyfamily at @LVRugby.