Youngs ready to mark milestone as most-capped player

Jason Leonard will be Ben Youngs’ loudest cheerleader at Twickenham today as he urges the England scrumhalf to savour a landmark achievement.

Youngs, 32, will surpass Leonard to become his country’s most capped male player when he steps off the bench and makes his 115th appearance in the Guinness Six Nations clash with Wales.

The Leicester scrum-half will reach the milestone in front of an 82,000 sell-out crowd 12 years after running on for his debut against Scotland.

Former Lions prop Leonard, who retains close ties with the game as an administrator and speaker having retired in 2004, feels only warmth for his successor-in-waiting as England’s most enduring player.

“I’ll be at Twickenham and I’ll be clapping harder than anyone in the West Stand when Ben comes on. It will be a great achievement,” Leonard said.

“To do it in front of a home crowd is amazing and I’m pretty sure that Twickenham will go absolutely nuts in celebration – and rightly so.

“I know Ben and his brother Tom, and their old man Nick, who used to play scrum-half for England himself back in the day. So I know the family and a nicer guy than Ben you couldn’t wish for.”

Leonard eclipsed Rory

Underwood’s milestone of 85 England appearances in 2000 but Youngs is the only other man from these shores to join him in the ranks of rugby’s Test centurions.

“The record has been very special and it still will be when Ben beats it. But it was never about the record, it’s not something I coveted,” Leonard said.

“In the era I started playing for England, if you got more than 30 caps you were considered a success.”

Adam Beard says that Wales’ attention to detail must be spot-on when they target a first Guinness Six Nations victory over England at Twickenham for 10 years.

Wales have only won there twice in Six Nations history – Grand Slam campaigns of 2008 and 2012 .

“It’s about getting our detail right from minute one to minute 80,” Wales vice-captain Beard said.

“But it is definitely important that we come out firing from the offset tomorrow and we start well.

● Michael Lowry will make his Ireland debut during tomorrow’s Guinness Six Nations clash with Italy in Dublin as part of six personnel changes to Andy Farrell’s starting XV.

The selection of the inform Ulster full-back brings to an end Hugo Keenan’s run of 18 consecutive Test starts.