England legend Ben Youngs returns to rugby in ‘important’ battle alongside brother
England legend Ben Youngs returns to rugby in 'important' battle alongside brother
When Ben Youngs retired from rugby he saw his future in podcasts, writing a book and coaching school kids. Not back in the closet digging around for his boots five months later.
He had happily consigned a record-breaking career to history; 337 appearances for Leicester supplementing 127 England caps and two Tests for the Lions. By any measure, that is an exceptional innings.
“I was done, I was so ready in my head,” he says. “Mine was a very different retirement from someone who’s injured and has to stop because it’s forced on them. I nearly called time the year before.”
Youngs duly wrote his book, Beyond The Line, got stuck back into The Love of Rugby podcast he presents with Dan Cole, and returned to his old school, Gresham’s in Norfolk, as Head of Performance Sport.
745 Charity Match for Motor Neurone Disease awareness
But then came the call from organisers of the ‘745’, rugby’s cross-code charity game, being staged at Gloucester on November 9 to raise funds and awareness for motor neurone disease.
Anyone who knows Youngs’ story will tell you he played his career as much for others as for himself; for his family who endured years of anguish and sadness with sister-in-law Tiffany suffering with blood cancer and brother-in-law Jake fighting a three-year battle with MND.
So, Youngs answered the call as everyone knew he would. And here we are, little more than a fortnight out from league and union uniting at Kingsholm, and the scrum-half is starting to sweat a bit.
“My brother Tom is also playing and he and I were having a nervous laugh the other day, saying: ‘At what stage do we start doing a little bit of training for this? Should we roll back the years to those one-on-ones we used to have in the garden as kids?’
“We’re now 36 and 38. I can almost see me and him doing that Run It Straight challenge just to get used to hitting again!”
It is good to hear him laugh because what we are here to discuss is grim. “MND is just so cruel,” Ben agrees, and boy has his circle of family and friends discovered that time and again. Aside from Jake, not one but two former Leicester teammates are battling the disease: Ed Slater and Lewis Moody.
“These are absolute warriors of guys, yet the biggest battle they’ve ever faced is MND,” Youngs continues. “They’ve played in front of 80,000 people, taken on the greatest rugby teams in the world and put it all on the line. Yet, this is the biggest battle ever. It’s just awful.
“Jake was such a strong, funny character, an amazing personality. He had a great sense of humour, real, strong farmer strength. And you’re watching this disease eat away at this strong bloke that is suddenly half his body weight.
“It takes away your voice. Just everything that comes with it, it’s so bloody awful, a prison sentence. Your mind’s absolutely fine, but your body.. your body isn’t.
“Which is why every penny, every pound, every game, everything we do to help find a cure, is just so important.”
“The rugby community is so overwhelmingly kind”
Rugby, sadly, is no stranger to rallying in these circumstances. From Joost van der Westhuizen and Doddie Weir, to Slater and Moody in union; to Mike Gregory, Sam Burgess’ dad Mark and Rob Burrow in league.
But the sport, in both codes, does so magnificently. It wraps itself around its own in the warmest of embraces.
“Tom, myself, the family, we’ve seen it first hand,” says Youngs. “The rugby community really does get behind those in need.
“We are all from different teams, but the sport becomes one in situations like this. The rugby community is so overwhelmingly kind and wants to support.”
We will see this again in Gloucester on the second Sunday in November when the great and good descend on Kingsholm. Memories will be made, money too. Hopefully a great deal. The need has never been greater.
The 745 game unites rugby union and rugby league legends in support of three incredible MND beneficiaries: the 4Ed Foundation, The Rob Burrow Discretionary Fund and My Name’5 Doddie Foundation. The game, kicking off at 5.40pm, will be broadcast live on TNT Sports 1. For full details, including tickets, visit www.745game.org
