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Ben Youngs: Why Springboks' Handre Pollard is thriving at Leicester

(Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

Long-serving scrum-half Ben Youngs has spoken about the silver lining of falling down the pecking order with England – getting to start five Gallagher Premiership wins in succession at Leicester with the World Cup-winning Handre Pollard. For the past decade or so, Youngs would have been away during February and March on Test duty with his country. However, his only appearance in this year’s Guinness Six Nations came in the closing stages of the opening round defeat to Scotland.

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After that, the 33-year-old record men’s caps holder was only involved with England for their start-of-the-week training sessions and he instead went back to Leicester on the Tuesday evenings to be available for weekend selection with the Tigers.

That situation resulted in him getting paired regularly with Pollard as the starting half-backs – a selection that had happened just once previously this season (away to Clermont in the Heineken Champions Cup) before it was reprised for the league matches versus Saracens, London Irish, Bath, Gloucester and Bristol.

Youngs was injured in that last fixture, and he sat out last weekend’s Champions Cup round-of-16 win over Edinburgh. Since then, he has made a guest appearance on the latest Rugby Pod episode and spoken about how great an addition Pollard has been at the Tigers.

There were initial fears that his signing might be an over-indulgence as he was injured on his October 1 debut and wasn’t available until late December. However, the out-half has since shown the best of himself and Youngs couldn’t be happier playing alongside the South African.

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“The only thing I could do (with the England situation) was to go back to the club and play well and I felt like I did that. I felt like I contributed to the run of results, and I really enjoyed just being at the club and playing for them and building that partnership with Handre, and being a part of a group that went on a bit of a run. We have still got that run now.

“He [Pollard] is a very good guy first and foremost, but he has a real calming presence. He is not someone that says anything less than needs to be said. He is a very calm character, very relaxed, gives off a real sort of calm energy. But what he is able to do I guess is he able to mix it. Whether that is his kicking game, whether that is his distributing game, he defends very well.

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“He has got a real balance to how he plays and he has brought that. It takes a while for any player to settle in and especially having come from France, from Montpellier where he had a bad injury and then when he got fit, he didn’t play much.

“He struggled out there and he is just really pleased to be in an environment and a place where he is thriving, and he is loving it and the environment has brought the best out of him and he is now able to then perform at the weekend. He has been class, absolute class.”

Youngs also praised interim head coach Richard Wigglesworth, a fellow scrum-half with whom he jostled for selection until Wigglesworth retired in December to take charge on a temporary basis for the rest of 2022/23 season before linking up with Steve Borthwick’s England set-up ahead of the World Cup.

“Genuinely he has done an amazing job. We didn’t just lose Kev (Sinfield) and Steve, we also lost Richard as an attack coach because he had to go and fill Steve’s (head coach) role. We basically lost a forwards coach, defence coach and an attack coach. Matt Everard has come on and does attack and defence, Richard oversees everything and Danny Wilson has come in to do the set-piece work.

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“He [Wigglesworth] has done an amazing job because that is difficult. I have to credit him, but also all the players and the staff because when something like that happens unless you have got a really good culture and a really good group of boys then I can see some teams throwing the towel and going, ‘We lost two coaches, we have got a new coach coming in next year’.

“But no, it’s not the way the group is and it is not the way that it has to be, so the boys have grabbed hold of it. He has done a great job and although we had a bit of a sticky patch at the start… it kick-started in Clermont and went from there. He will be a loss next year.”

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Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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