England will not let the pressure of being World Cup hosts get to them when they start the tournament against Fiji at Twickenham, says their hooker Tom Youngs. “This is something we’ve been waiting for, something we have trained extremely hard for. It is our big moment and you could feel the sharpening of attitude when this month started.”
Friday’s international will be different from any other England’s players will have experienced because it will be preceded by an opening ceremony, something Stuart Lancaster has said he will ensure his team is prepared for.
Youngs said: “I won’t allow anything to become a distraction and will concentrate on what I need to do. Our routine will be very relaxed. It’s a long old day with an 8pm kick-off, so you get a sleep in the afternoon, make sure your food is good, keep focused.
“Some guys sit on the bus listening to their music. I prefer to look out the window, seeing what cars go past. In the changing room I like to think about my first few jobs. Nothing dramatic, just a collective approach to maintain the focus.
“The key is to build up the mood within the room by talking to one another and giving little reminders. You don’t really start thinking about family and so on until the anthems. That’s when things kick in.”
Youngs became England’s first-choice hooker after the suspension of Dylan Hartley. “Dylan did what he did and got banned,” said Youngs. “We have three hookers in the squad and we all want to be the best. Things are going right at forward: there were a couple of things we had to look at in the warm-ups but there was no panic.
“We had some good scrums against Ireland and the two we lost against the head were down to a combination of things. It was to do with my brother [Ben, the scrum-half] putting the ball in when I didn’t quite want it. Hooking for the ball now means it is all about timing and tiny things can make a difference. Ben is very good at feeding the ball, I was just not best pleased that one time I was on and we lost a strike on our ball. The scrum has become a real contest again. There were no collapses against Ireland and both teams wanted to stay up.
“We have to make sure we deny Fiji the ball because they have serious threats if given time and space. They are big and powerful and we have to be disciplined.”
