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Where are they now? The Leicester 23 on Ben Youngs' club debut

Ben Youngs of Leicester, aged 17 (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Ben Youngs will soon call time on a career that has brought him a record 127 caps for his country, four Six Nations titles, as well as five Premiership titles, with possibly a sixth on the way, after becoming Leicester’s youngest Premiership player, aged 17 in April 2007.

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Youngs made a very late cameo coming off the bench in the final minute for Frank Murphy on a rainy Wednesday night Premiership clash that ended in a 30-13 defeat to Bristol at Ashton Gate.

Scott Linklater and Roy Winters scored tries for Bristol, with the boot of Danny Gray kicking a conversion and six penalties to move Bristol up to third place, a point behind the Tigers and Gloucester.

The under-strength Tigers, who were 19-10 behind at half-time, had an Ollie Smith try converted by Ian Humphreys, who also kicked two penalties.

But what became of the Tigers’ squad from that night?

15. Johne Murphy – Emerging Ireland full-back is back in Ireland coaching Newbridge College and is a founder of the horse ownership platform Stride Racing.

14. Leon Lloyd: England winger co-founded career transition specialists Centrum Solutions, sits on the RFU disciplinary committee, and is now a Tigers director.

13. Ollie Smith – England and Lions centre who coached at Esher, London Welsh and Bury St Edmunds after being forced to retire with a knee injury.

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12. Matt Cornwall – A centre who spent five years as Head of Rugby Operations at Edinburgh before moving into sales. He is an account executive at IT firm Nextview Consulting.

11. Tom Varndell – The England winger and prolific Premiership try-scorer co-owned a health and fitness company, Fitness Burners. An RFU-licensed agent, he is also a director of Elite Athlete Management and works on occasion for BBC Radio Leicester.

10. Ian Humphreys – Ireland fly-half who replaced his brother David at Ulster. He is now a successful player’s agent and is a director of Anzo Sports Management in Ballymena, Northern Ireland.

9. Frank Murphy – Ireland A scrum-half who moved into refereeing when he retired and officiated at last season’s URC Grand Final. He is also a freelance illustrator/designer.

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1 Alex Moreno – A prop who played for both Italy and Argentina and moved into coaching, serving as head coach of the Jockey Club in his homeland as well as the Rugby Pro Sud academy.

2. James Buckland – England Saxons, Leicester, Wasps and London Irish hooker who has coached at London Welsh and Ealing Trailfinders. He is the founder and Managing Director of Next Phase Academy.

3. Michael Holford – Played for Nottingham as well as the Tigers. Was a site manager for Ideal Building & Joinery Services before becoming an enforcement agent for Marston Holdings.

4. Leo Cullen – Ireland lock, who has been Leinster’s head coach since 2015, after spending a season as forwards coach following his retirement in May 2014.

5. Jim Hamilton: Swindon-born lock who qualified for Scotland through his soldier father. Has carved out a successful media career for himself, including working for RugbyPass.

6. Tom Croft – England and Lions flanker part-owns a coffee bar at Leicester’s Welford Road and works for Davidsons Homes in the Midlands.

7. Luke Abrahams: England Saxons flanker, who won three Premiership title medals and one European Cup, and is now a successful property developer.

Jordan Crane – England No.8 and former WBA goalkeeper, who scored the only try when Leicester beat London Irish 10-9 in the 2009 Premiership final. On retiring from the game, he became an Academy coach at Bristol Bears, where he is now the defence coach.

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Replacements:

Paul Burke – Ireland fly-half who went into coaching with Leicester Tigers and then, a decade ago, became the director of rugby at Epsom College and is Chair of the Irish Exiles.

Gavin Hickie – A hooker who has settled in the United States, where he has coached as the Head Coach and Director of Rugby for the United States Naval Academy.

Brett Deacon – Coached the Tigers academy once he was forced to retire from playing and was appointed forwards coach ahead of the 2024/2025 campaign.

Dave Young – The Scotland A prop became an agent with Phoenix Sports Management and is now a consultant for World in Motion.

Tom Youngs – Only Martin Johnson has led the Tigers more than the popular former England hooker. Retired in April 2022 to help run his Norfolk family farm.

Ben Youngs – The scrum-half is England’s most-capped male player and the younger brother of Tom; together with Dad Nick, they have clocked up almost 700 club appearances between them.

Louis Deacon – England lock and the elder of two brothers. He worked with Coventry before becoming forwards’ coach to the Red Roses in 2021. Served as interim head coach when Simon Middleton stepped down in 2023.

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B
BleedRed&Black 28 minutes ago
Who is telling the truth about France's tour of New Zealand?

You missed all the hookers,


Lamothe 1482 30 games

Marchand 1321 29 games

Mauvaka 982 21 games


What evades you, and all the other propagandists/apologists for French rugby, is that of the 23 players identified from the 6N squad as being left at home, only five are out with injury. [I'll take you on your word for that] The other 18 are either eligible or have been ruled out because they have played "too many games" before the end of season tour. Yet all these players are not on the supposed 25 game limit. They are over it, most well over. Some have played thirty games. Read your own figures. Draw the obvious conclusion.


The fact that those players are already over the 25 game limit demonstrates that the 25 game limit is a lie, a propaganda device only applied to end of season tours, not to France's club rugby, where it is regularly and at times grossly breached. The French system reserves all the minutes and all the games for its club rugby, for the 6 Nations, for the Autumn internationals, and even then it is flexible to the point of meaninglessness, as the matches and minutes likes of Ramos have racked have demonstrated. Reciprocal internationals to the south means nothing to French rugby. No space is given to them, no significance is attached. They are a burden to the French game, a diversion from the soap opera, something that French rugby treats with the contempt it believes they deserve.


Its one thing to be forced to accept the decisions of the powerful. Its another thing altogether to believe their lies.

284 Go to comments
t
takata 36 minutes ago
Who is telling the truth about France's tour of New Zealand?

All French Rugby pro contracts (players are all contacted with their club and not with the French Federation), following the demand from their player association, are including a clause about resting players:

- after 6 consecutive weeks, one should rest one week.

- each summer, they should have 6 consecutive weeks of rest.


Now, take into account the fact that the championship will finish at the end of June and will restart in early september ; with a few weeks of preparation in August, there isn’t much left for the “summer friendlies” without impacting the early club season ; it’s even worse for Pro D2 which start earlier.


Beside, those “tests” are really considered “frendlies” and, unless something like last year in Argentina happened to draw general public attention into it, nobody really care about them in France (barely no press or tv). I’m following Rugby for almost 50 years (club and national team) and I can’t remember having watched a single summer game in my life while I’ve never missed a single 5/6 Nations, a world cup or the Championships’ playoff.


The Top 14 format didn’t change during the last 20 years and it’s not going to change any time soon (and it certainly wasn’t any better before 2005). The clubs are not franchised and will be relegated to Pro D2 if they are not competitive enough from the start. If this happen, it just might kill them financially.

284 Go to comments
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LONG READ Who is telling the truth about France's tour of New Zealand? Who is telling the truth about France's tour of New Zealand?
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