Tom Youngs talks as he plays. Direct, to the point, honest, and over the past year his hard-working, uncomplicated attitude has opened up an international rugby horizon for the Leicester and England hooker as broad as the wide open spaces on the family farm in Aylsham, Norfolk, where he was raised.
If Youngs’ approach is the bedrock that underpins his rise to join his younger brother Ben in the England team, and to challenge Dylan Hartley for the Red Rose No.2 jersey this season, he is helped mightily by a physical frame that shouts the words “agricultural strength”.
Like his dad, Nick, the stocky Leicester and England scrum-half of the early 1980s, Tom Youngs looks shorter than 5ft 9ins because he is almost as broad across the shouders as he is tall. It is this shape, and the compact, dynamic power compressed into it, that persuaded the current Springbok coach, Heyneke Meyer, to switch him from centre to hooker during his stint at the Tigers. Legend has it that Meyer made his mind up after seeing Youngs fighting with a Saracens prop in a second team game.
Having been installed in the position he was built for, the farm boy has not looked back. He impressed England forwards coach Graham Rowntree in South Africa as a mid-weeker last summer and made his debut for England against Fiji this autumn after injury had ruled out Hartley. Youngs, 25, stayed there for the duration of the Twickenham series, enduring the lows of the losses to Australia and South Africa before finishing on an unbelieveable high as part of the England team that rolled over New Zealand.
Having helped to dig England out of a tight corner, and put down a marker of better days to come, this week Youngs is in a similar predicament with Leicester, the club that has nurtured him. The Tigers have seen their European status dwindle since their epic back-to-back Heineken Cup wins in 2001 and 2002, and today they face French giants Toulouse in a pool decider at Welford Road which will not only determine which of the two great clubs progresses to the quarter-finals, but which also has the potential to be a make-or-break moment for the whole season.
Youngs admits its significance: “This is absolutely massive for the club and the city. The Heineken Cup has some huge games, and this is as big as they come. Against the Ospreys last weekend it was very frustrating because we built pressure well, but then we got the ball stripped off us far too many times. We were annoyed afterwards because Leicester don’t do that. That can’t happen this week. Toulouse are a good side, but they are beatable. They’ll want to take the start away from us, but, although (Luke) McAlister runs the game well for them, like us they’ve been misfiring a bit.”
However, having played in Leicester’s 23-9 defeat in Toulouse, he adds: “But they’ve got power there, and you cannot rely on that happening.”
Youngs also identifies the Tigers flaws in the away loss. “Discipline let us down. We were leading at half-time – so the difference was a few stupid penalties.”
As for his own head-to-head, Youngs says both Toulouse hookers, Christopher Tolofua and Gary Botha are good operators, although he regrets not getting the chance to play against William Servat, the retired France international and incumbent Toulouse forwards coach.
“Servat is a guy I always used to watch, and he was a great player. I’d have liked to have played against him. He has a lot of respect from other front row players. I see myself as being in a similar mould, and if I’m ever held in the same light as Servat it would be a very big achievement. I played against Gary Botha last time, and I knew from his time at Harlequins that he’s a good all-rounder, and a strong scrummager.”
However, Youngs believes the Leicester forwards can dent Toulouse in the close quarter combat and at the scrum – a prospect he relishes. “I think we can get on top of them up front. In the first half at their place we got a few penalties, and we were not going backwards in the scrum. I love the scrummage, and although I’m not the finished article, it’s one of my favourite parts of the game. This weekend it will be an absolute battle in there. It will be a tough place to be, but it’s going to be good.”
Part of his optimism is inspired by the men around him, and Dan Cole, his tighthead partner at club and country, in particular.
“Coley’s outstanding. He makes your job easy. He doesn’t go across on the angle early, he forces his own little gap then goes through it. He’s very strong, good at the little detail, and his backside is humongous for the boys behind to push on.”
Despite the speed and strength that saw him play centre, Youngs says he is as happy in the tight as in the loose. “I’m not like Schalk Brits, he’s a man on his own. If I can make breaks here and there that’s great, and I look for them, but I’m not a main counter-attacker like Brits is for Saracens.
“Wherever I’m needed I’ll go, and I try to keep the work-rate high. From what I’ve seen of Bismarck du Plessis, he’s a great player, a physical man. It was also great to play against an All Black like Keven Mealamu, who has 102 caps, and good to have a chat with him afterwards – you could not have met a nicer guy.”
There is evidence that while he would run through a brick wall for the cause, Youngs is also a quiet thinker. “Whoever decided the hooker should be throwing in was a bit stupid, because in a way you’re fighting against mother nature.
“The big thing is fatigue from the scrums. With your shoulders and upper arms getting tighter and tighter during the game you are sometimes not in the best shape, because when you throw you need to open up (your shoulders) and be relaxed.”
Youngs says that his England experience is a bonus when he returns to the Tigers. “It helps in the way you prepare for big games, and also in the confidence in your own playing ability you bring back after a win like that over the All Blacks. Before matches I try to stay as relaxed as possible until the day of the game, because if you don’t, you can overthink it and wear down your mental energy.”
There is also a benefit from the attention to detail from the coaches, whether Leicester or England, although Youngs says you must be your own man when it comes to what training aids works best for you. He adds that having come in for some criticism against South Africa it was satisfying to answer it against New Zealand.
“My lineouts have come on a lot. Simon Hardy (England’s lineout specialist) has been a great help bringing along his lollipop, but you can get carried away with always trying to hit a target. Everything is linked when it comes to the lineout, and I’d rather throw ‘live’ to a lineout or a pod of players. It’s about practising in the same way as you play, so that you mirror what happens in a match – and aim to hit a jumper who is a moving target.
“Throwing-in is a great skill, and I love watching a great lineout work because everything has to co-ordinate: the call, the set-up, the thrower, the lifters, the dummy moves, and then the clean off-the-top deflection. But it’s also so easy for it to go wrong. It can be a tiny little thing like someone forgetting a dummy, and in an instant it is all thrown out of sync. There is hesitation, the throw goes long or short, or the jumper is not in the right place. It’s amazing the little details that can affect it, but as you get more experienced you learn how to make adjustments.”
“It’s a bit like putting, and there’s always the danger of paralysis by analysis. If things go wrong I try to learn the lesson but then move on. In pro sport you can’t let anything get to you, and I’m quite good at putting things behind me and concentrating on the next challenge.”
Youngs fascination in attending to the set-piece and getting it working smoothly is no accident, because the lineout relies on the same complex meshing of cogs and gears that exists in the farm machinery that Youngs admits he’ll happily spend hours tinkering with. “I’ll farm after rugby. I absolutely love it – it’s my release.
“I love the outdoors lifestyle, and I am happy sitting on a tractor for 14 hours a day if it’s required. I love the machinery, keeping it working and getting my hands dirty.”
However, it is rugby that comes first now, and the business of getting Leicester and England to the top. This includes keeping a weather-eye on his gifted scrum-half sibling, Ben, two years his junior.
“Everyone expects magical things from him every game, but he is watched very carefully. He gets a fair amount of flak, but Ben still always seems to have the knack of doing something when it’s needed most, like the try he scored against the Ospreys, or putting someone through a hole. He’s come on a lot, especially his overall management of the game, and his kicking. I tend to get fired up more quickly than him, but while hooker may be the tougher position physically, mentally scrum-half is a much more demanding position because you’ve got to control people.”
“I’ve always looked out for him. We didn’t really play much together until he came to the Tigers, because at school I was two years above him. But when he joined the Leicester Academy when he was 16, I’d take him to school in the mornings, so I was his ‘parent’ for a couple of years.”
Ask Youngs if there is more pressure on England going in to the 2013 Six Nations schedule because of the raised expectations after the win over New Zealand, and his response is rock solid.
“I don’t see it as pressure. We want to perform like that every game – you want that benchmark. We knew in the autumn that there was that game in us, and we knew we were heading in the right direction despite losing against South Africa to a lucky try. After something like that a team can go into its shell, but we didn’t. We knew what we wanted to do, and couldn’t wait to play against the best.”
“I’m relishing it. The start against Scotland will be a tough one. Ireland away will also be a big game, and then to finish the Six Nations against Wales at the Millennium Stadium will be something special.”
The same can be said of the attitude Tom Youngs brings to the party.
