We must all share the blame -Youngs
BEN Youngs insists Leicester's players only have themselves to blame for last season's flop and not Dan McKellar who exited as head coach in June.
The veteran scrum-half also revealed he will have to wear a heart monitor for at least three years after undergoing minor cardiac surgery in the summer but is raring to go and put things right in the Midlands.
Tigers finished eighth in the Premiership just two years after winning the title, and one after making the semi-finals, and McKellar left the club.
Youngs was in France with England at the World Cup as Leicester lost three out of their first four league games and never got any real momentum.
The 34-year-old is now off the international scene and reckons the new regime, headed by Michael Cheika, can get the club off to a flyer but it is down to the squad to deliver.
Youngs said: “There were a lot of guys away at the World Cup, so when they came back, some of the damage was already done. You are chasing your tail in a league where there isn't that many games you can afford to lose.
Youngs: Players are to blame for poor season
“Roster wise, we had a brilliant squad last year, as we do this season. Our squad this year is extremely strong as it last year, bar Jasper Wiese. Everyone would love a Jasper Wiese, but that's not possible. Going from winning it to third, to eighth, clearly we didn't get some things right, and that's as much players' responsibility as it is coaching. Yes, you're dealt with your plan and everything like that but ultimately we take the field and we have to deliver, and we didn't do that enough and we fell short by quite some way.
“I didn't feel like necessarily we were close to top four. I felt like you came eighth and there was a reason for that. We weren't consistently good enough throughout the year, and in the games that we needed to pick up points, we weren't able to do that.
“There was a couple of games at the back end of the year – one springs to mind where we were up against Bristol and they scored three tries in the last 10 minutes. If you want to go and win a league and win a championship, teams don't do that.”
Youngs had surgery to correct a cardiac arrythmia which involved burning out some tissue in his heart, via a probe inserted through his groin, but is expected to be in training this week.
He had nearly collapsed in a public training session earlier this year when his heart was racing because of the condition he was born with.
He is eyeing a return at the start of the season and insists his extended ‘rest' period will stand him in good stead when the Premiership kicks off for Tigers at Exeter on September 21.
Youngs added: “When you have moments like that, of course, you just don't know how long you're going to be out for. But I was really reassured straight away that it certainly wasn't going to stop me from carrying on doing the profession I love doing. It was just more a time of ‘how long will it take?' For me, having a long, extended break, physically and mentally – it's been a blessing.
“I can't think of another time when I am going to step over that whitewash for training and be in such a place where I'm genuinely in a position of ‘I can't wait to throw myself into it, I can't wait to go and compete and do all that'. I think sometimes seasons come so thick and fast over here, you don't always get a chance to keep that fire burning.
“The monitor will be there for least for another three years, because the operation has got a 90 per cent success rate so it should be good. Hopefully I am not one of the 10 per cent. It is basically like having one of the old school telephones under your bed and at midnight it just pings and gives the data for the day. It was reassuring, the care has been brilliant and it's nice to know it has been fixed.”
