Rugby World Cup 2019: Ben Youngs wants new England chapter after past failures

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By Tom Fordyce
Chief sports writer in Miyazaki
England scrum-half Ben Youngs says that he wants something out of his next World Cup following the bitter disappointments of 2011 and 2015.
Youngs is one of four giants, together with center Manu Tuilagi and forwards Dan Cole and Courtney Lawes, from the squad that went to New Zealand eight years ago.
Off-field controversies beset england as they went outside from the quarter-finals in 2011, and failed to escape the group stages.
Youngs stated:“Neither of them was the result I wanted.
„I believe anyone would like to look back at the end of their livelihood and feel proud of achievement – and the World Cup is always the pinnacle.
„This opportunity here on this side is probably the best chance I have of being in a position to return at a time of my career and say, yeahthat was something really unique.“
Youngs was only 22 when he made his World Cup debut in New Zealand eight decades ago, scoring the attempt in Dunedin as England squeezed in their first group game past Argentina.
But they fought from there on, an team night out in Queenstown producing a storm and Tuilagi after jumping off a ferry being fined to Auckland harbour.
Their defeat by a France team which had itself lost to underdogs Tonga resulted in the resignation of head coach Martin Johnson along with three separate reports to what went wrong at what the RFU’s director of elite rugby, Rob Andrew, afterwards called“the World Cup out of hell“.
Youngs told BBC Radio 5 Live:“I’m proud of this fact I’ve been to two World Cups before – I’m proud of 2011 in that I had been there, also at 2015 representing England in a home World Cup, which was an achievement in itself.
„Every experience differs. All of them teach you something. And the experience from 2011 was making sure you stay focused on the pitch and then provide on that.
„There were a lot of distractions happening in that tournament which didn’t allow us to provide.
„World Cups are strange things, and that I really don’t have the magic formula – it is sport, it happens. It happened to us.
„I can sit here and say I am determined it won’t happen again, but I can not guarantee it.
„But it’s what coming up that matters – about this class now under Eddie Jones. There are a number of guys who played in 2011 and 2015 who didn’t get another opportunity at a World Cup.“
Their campaign opens against Tonga in Sapporo on Sunday.
The Pacific islanders have been thumped 92-7 by New Zealand at a warm-up match this particular past month , conceding 14 tries.
However, Youngs – that the most capped number nine in English history – is wary of the threat they might pose in the championship proper.
„If you play Tonga and Samoa and South Africa, you know they are considered the most physical teams, plus they rarely neglect,“ he said.
„We’ve got to make sure physically we are up to this challenge – they are going to receive a whole lot of perception through how they take the ball and the way they handle.
„They’re big guys, so we have to be smart in how we take the ball and that stations we return – they surely won’t give us any space around the ruck or getting momentum round there.
„You need to be patient. Everything you have to avoid is falling right into the snare of fool’s gold space, in which you see what you believe is distance or an opportunity and shift it early, they get cover there.
„There’s no hiding – you have to get through a group at first before it is possible to make the space out wide.
„They could lure you out there and then, boom, they close it down and go really hard at the breakdown and make it quite hard for you.“
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