Youngs is not flashy, but he holds key for England
always talking to his team but I do not recall him shouting too often, or being involved in many confrontations. Instead, he just does his job and delivers performances that never drop below seven out of 10.
And it is that consistency which I believe Jones values most. When he looks at Youngs, he sees an extremely solid and experienced player who does all the basics well. His box-kicks are excellent, his defensive game strong, he reads the game well and he can snipe around the fringes. He has an excellent relationship with Ford and Farrell, and can adapt his game depending on what type of fly-half he is playing alongside and according to the conditions.
He rarely makes mistakes, which is a quality Jones clearly rates highly. Danny Care has not been seen since a poor game against Japan, while electric but more risky options, such as Ben Spencer and Dan Robson have also been discarded.
Instead, Jones has turned to Heinz as Youngs’ back-up. The Gloucester man is similar to Youngs in that he is solid rather than spectacular, a man who will not give a game away through an intercept but is unlikely to win it for you with a moment of brilliance. To me, that suggests Jones has decided that due to the uncertainty over his fly-half position he needs someone he can rely on at scrum-half, rather than
I always thought of No 9 as a sheepdog – someone has to round up forwards
worrying over what performance you might get.
While I can understand that logic, it does concern me. I have always thought that having a game-changer on the bench, such as a Care or a Robson, was logical. Instead, if Youngs is injured or ineffective then England cannot change the tempo or direction of the game as they might wish. There is also the question of whether Heinz is up to the job at Test level. With just two caps to his name, we simply do not know the answer. He was impressive on debut and injury cut short his appearance last weekend, so we will not discover if he truly has what it takes until he is on the world’s biggest stage.
That is clearly less than ideal and it will be a concern throughout the World Cup. So Jones, like the rest of us, will be crossing his fingers Youngs remains fit and healthy throughout the tournament. If he is injured today, then it is not inconceivable that England’s hopes might just have disappeared with their most indispensable player.