The Test centurion has been part of the national set-up for more than a decade
Who is Ben Youngs: Ten things you should know about the England scrum-half
Ben Youngs has been playing professional rugby for 15 years and has made more than 100 appearances for his country.
Ten things you should know about Ben Youngs
1. Ben Youngs was born on 5 September 1989 in Aylsham, England. He stands at 5ft 10in (1.78m) and weighs 14st 7lb (92kg).
2. He has played his entire senior career for Leicester Tigers.
3. Youngs competed for England‘s age-grade teams and won his first Test cap in 2010 against Scotland.
4. He became only the second England men’s player to reach 100 caps when playing Italy in 2020.
He is set to become England’s most-capped men’s player in the 2022 Six Nations. He went into the championship with 112 caps, needing just three appearances to break Jason Leonard’s long-standing record.
5. Youngs was selected to go on the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour and he played two Tests in the winning series against Australia.
He was also selected in 2017 for the tour of New Zealand, but he didn’t go due to family commitments.
6. His brother, Tom, is a professional rugby player and plays alongside him at Leicester as a hooker.
In addition, their father Nick – a scrum-half also played for England.
7. He became Leicester’s then youngest-ever league player when making his debut in April 2007 as a 17-year-old. He has gone on to make more than 250 appearances for the Tigers.
8. Youngs’s Leicester and England team-mate George Ford has said the scrum-half is an asset to the teams he is part of, telling the Leicester Mercury: “People won’t know what they’ve got, in terms of at Leicester and England, until he’s gone.”
9. His nickname is Lenny and he told Rugby World: “I wish I had a story for it but I’m the youngest of 28 first cousins and we all have the same sort of nickname – Benny became Lenny and it stuck. Everyone calls me that now.”
10. He started a coffee business with Tom Croft, one of his best friends and a former Leicester and England team-mate, that operated at Welford Road, but it “fizzled out” in 2020.
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