‘Youngs the best hooker by a country mile’

Editor

Richard Cockerill passionately described Leicester's Tom Youngs as England's best hooker and a possible captain on Sunday.

The Leicester boss was speaking after his side's Champions Cup win over Munster.

Youngs was England's starter during their ill-fated World Cup campaign and has been criticised in the past for his work at the lineout.

However according to Cockerill it's no contest between Youngs and rest of the competition at hooker for England, including Saracens' in-form Jamie Goerge.

“Tom Youngs is the best hooker in England by a country mile and should be the starting number two against Scotland,” Cockerill told reporters. 

“I don’t know where all this talk of Dylan Hartley being captain is, but there are a lot of other captaincy options, including Tom himself. Maybe he should be made England captain.

“He is a good man and leads by example in how he behaves, how he trains and how he plays. He should be the first name on the [England] teamsheet. He has been outstanding for us this past six to eight weeks and was phenomenal again tonight.”

As for Leicester's win itself, Cockerill was pleased to see his group of players dig deep for an important result as they stay unbeaten in Europe.

“We found a way to win and a few defensive ploys saved the game for us,” Cockerill added.

“The boys showed guts. The cards have fallen our way in this group and if we can beat Treviso, we will go into the last weekend in pole position.”