Who’d be a hooker? Especially if once a centre. Tom Youngs must look back at his carefree youth, frolicking in the open spaces with the other backs, and wonder what pact with the devil it was that saw him give all that away to take up the most exposed position on the rugby field. A winning Lions tour, nearly 30 England caps (and counting), a Premiership title later, and still all people talk about is the bloody throwing in.
The man himself sighs. “I think it’s something I’ll be tarred with for the rest of my career – that I can’t throw. It’s pretty frustrating when you look at the stats. 93% …”
That refers to his success rate locating jumpers at the World Cup (which tallies with his 92% for Leicester in last season’s Premiership campaign). He was also second on England’s tackle count, fourth on their carry count – by any rational measure, one of the most effective performers of a doomed campaign. But he is still the converted centre in many people’s eyes, still the hooker who learnt his trade under the merciless scrutiny of the public eye.
“I feel I overcame it a long time ago, but it seems if I miss one throw, which may not be my fault, I get tarred with that brush. It’s something people see me as being poor at.”
As luck would have it, Youngs is a man of rare fortitude. He made his Leicester debut nearly nine years ago as a centre, broke his leg after five minutes, came off after 14. Two years after that, he got into a fight with a Saracens prop during an “A” league match. Impressed by his gumption, Heyneke Meyer, Leicester’s head coach at the time, ambled up to him, presumably with a devilish grin on his face, and made the suggestion that was to change his life. “Have you thought about playing hooker?” Then, like any demon worth his salt, he disappeared almost immediately.
It is just as well Richard Cockerill, who lives, breathes and eats hooker, took over as Leicester supremo to see the conversion through. Within four years of Meyer’s suggestion, Youngs was an England international. We’ve seen props make the switch, we’ve even seen back-row forwards, but to go from first-class centre to international hooker, the most thankless position on the pitch, in such a short period is some feat.
It is one of rugby’s ongoing absurdities that the hooker must throw in at lineout time. Body wracked with pain and exhaustion from endless scrummaging, tackling and carrying, he is expected to transcend all malice and tension in body and soul to hit a tiny target as far as 15 metres away, which isn’t even there when he throws at it.
“It’s by far the hardest part,” confirms Youngs. “You need to be flexible with an open chest, but as the game wears on you are just getting tighter and tighter in your shoulders. You don’t want that for throwing.”
No wonder a few go awry, however long you’ve been practising the art.
That’s not the only technicality to be mastered. The irony is that it was at the scrum where England encountered most of their problems in the World Cup, even if it wasn’t all bad there either. “Actually, we dominated Wales, but no one writes about that. Against Fiji we won lots of penalties, but we lost the ball on our own five-metre line and they scored from it. We shouldn’t have let that happen. Australia came and scrummed well.”
It has been a torrid few months, not just for England but for Leicester too. Recent nightmares will be revisited this weekend when they host Bath, who last season beat them at the Rec by 45-0 and 47-10, the latter in last season’s Premiership semi-final, no less.
Youngs is the sort of earthy character quite happy to tackle these lowlights head on. “Er, I think World Cup,” he says with a hint of irony when asked which of the lowlights with club and country hurt the most. “Home World Cup – that would top most things. But in club terms that was the worst experience I’ve ever had.
“Leicester’s quite an intense place. The next door neighbours are big Tigers fans. When you leave the house you try not to talk to them for a couple of days. You’re just a bit embarrassed that you even let it happen.”
Youngs is looking those neighbours in the eye once again. Leicester’s start to the season has been bold, dovetailing with those of other English clubs chastened by their players’ perceived failings at the World Cup.
There’s a new coach on the scene at international level, and everyone’s eager to impress. What’s more, he’s another former hooker – and a former Leicester hooker at that, albeit for a handful of matches in 1991. We can be sure Eddie Jones will appreciate Youngs’ worth as a hooker, not view it in the context of his past as a centre. Indeed, he will be all the more impressed by that back story — as should the rest of us.
