How Ben Youngs became England’s ‘squadfather’ on verge of caps record

When Ben Youngs got married, in 2015, his best man, Tom Croft, pulled together a collection of his favourite things Youngs had come out with in the years they’d been playing together and published them in a book called … Stuff Ben Said. There was the time Youngs asked if Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger “were really twins”, when he said he “had only just learned he had two lungs”, asked whether the “place with all the stone heads was called Easter Egg Island” and the one when he called his brother Tom to ask why his stew was so dry. “Did you add stock?” Tom asked: “Yes, two cubes.” “And did you add water to the cubes?” Pause. “Do I need to?”

Youngs has reached another landmark this week. If all goes as it should do, he’ll play his 115th game for England on Saturday and break the England men’s caps record set by Jason Leonard in 2004 (although he is a way off the 137 games Rocky Clark played for England women).

Youngs isn’t saying so much this time, he did a podcast with the RFU, and an interview on behalf of one of his sponsors, but otherwise he’s not talking to the press before the game. He does not want to make too much of it when a match against Wales awaits and the title is still on the line.

Which fits. Youngs has never demanded attention, has never been in running for World Rugby’s Player of the Year award, has never been picked as the Player of the Six Nations. He doesn’t have Aaron Smith’s pass or Antoine Dupont’s strength, he wasn’t ever as imposing as Conor Murray or as much of a menace as Faf de Klerk. For long stretches of his career there have been plenty of people who would argue with you whether he was the best scrum-half in the country. Danny Care scored and set up more tries, Richard Wigglesworth