Tigers : Youngs facing lengthy layoff

Two-three months

http://www.espnscrum.com/england/rugby/story/165989.html

ESPN Staff
June 21, 2012

England scrum-half Ben Youngs is facing a lengthy layoff after undergoing surgery on his injured shoulder.

Youngs has flown home after sustaining his injury in the second Test against South Africa last Saturday. "The prognosis is two to three months," Youngs wrote in his column for the Times. "There was a lot of discomfort and I couldn't really sleep on Saturday night, only on my back.

"On Sunday morning, I had medical screenings, had the scan and they came back with the result. The injury requires keyhole surgery."

The scrum-half shone for England in the match last Saturday as he scored twice and the news was a cruel blow after he was showing signs of being back to his best. Youngs said: "It is gutting to miss the third Test - no-one likes to go home injured.

"I felt that at Ellis Park I had started to lay down a marker and gone and got the shirt back and then you are injured. It is so tough."

The England/Tigers curse strikes once more. Cockers, bring 'em all back!

If only there was an icon to show my annoyance at this news, ah or maybe or even .

At least the two month lay off will give him some proper rest time this summer as he had none last year with next years Lions Tour calling for him as well (the coaches would be moronic not to take him vs Australia).

Harrison and Young are good back up 9s so it's not a major concern with Youngs back for the start of the season. Injuries to Manu or Flood would be far more worrying and an injury to Dan Cole a massive blow. Hope Lancaster wraps them in cotton wool.

formerly known as Sam wrote:If only there was an icon to show my annoyance at this news, ah or maybe or even .

At least the two month lay off will give him some proper rest time this summer as he had none last year with next years Lions Tour calling for him as well (the coaches would be moronic not to take him vs Australia).

Harrison and Young are good back up 9s so it's not a major concern with Youngs back for the start of the season. Injuries to Manu or Flood would be far more worrying and an injury to Dan Cole a massive blow. Hope Lancaster wraps them in cotton wool.

Your lot have it easy . The Crusaders have to play the Chiefs next weekend without Dan Carter and Kieran Read, and they're likely to miss a big chunk of the run into the playoffs

If Owen Franks, Sam Whitelock, Richie McCaw or Israel Dagg get injured this weekend we're royally feiced

After the RWC Cockers released a statement saying that Ben Youngs was barely fit to train let alone play. That led to a month on the sidelines with another month of easing him back in. He wasn't fully match fit until the end of the season. That was annoying. Missing 12 players to international duty during our injury crisis over the first 6 games (over 20 players missing all told) and then another 7 weeks without the England 6N contingent and 5 weeks of 6N for Castro.

At least your Union don't plonk international games on the same weekend as your club has league fixtures!

That's a bit rough. After him receiving a bit of flack I thought he was awesome last weekend. Still looks about 10 years old mind.

Well he is only 22, still a young player so he's bound to look a bit young and be a tad inconsistent at times. As he gets older he should mature into a brilliant and consistent 9, who may look old enough to get served.

At least with it being his shoulder, he can still do most fitness stuff.

LondonTiger wrote:At least with it being his shoulder, he can still do most fitness stuff.

I'd disagree actually. Running/jogging is difficult and painful, as when you run, you naturally pump your arms, providing momentum and balance. Try running without moving your arms, its real difficult. Also, things like cross trainers and rowing machines rely on the use of the arms, rowing machines fundamentally. All upper body work is pretty much out of the question for obvious reasons.

It might have been better to injure a leg, because at least some upper body work is possible. I would imagine his rehab will consist of light physiotherapy.

I totally agree, running was one of the most painful things when I dislocated my shoulder. It feels like it is going to drop out all the time. It's not like you can swim or cycle that easily either

Yeah, I snapped some ligaments in my shoulder and running was horrible. You can spin-cycle on bike machines though

I'm guessing he's going to be struggling to do most exercises and a lot of exercises like sit ups or the leg machines at the gym will require pressue on the back which will in turn pull on his shoulder.

Spin classes and unweighted squats for him then. He'll have quads like tree trunks come next season.

I wish it was a leg injury, then he could practice passing without taking 3 steps beforehand. Drives me bloody mental!

Bathite he often does that because he knows Flood is coming flat and at pace. By taking a couple of steps he stops the defence drifting out and covering Flood's attacking threat. If they drift he snipes, if they don't drift he released Flood and the pre planned attack. If has worked for several seasons at Tigers. It doesn't work when Youngs does it with a Farrell/Wilko style 10 who is standing 15m away from the gainline and approaching at a slow jog.

His passing accuracy and speed could do with a little fine tuning though as sometimes Flood has to reach for it and it can knock him out of his stride a bit. His understudy at Tigers, Sam Harrison, has a precise bullet of a pass and the kid can pass like that from the back of the scrum for some 30 odd metres. He can be at a ruck near the touchline and make the pass go straight to the hands of the 10 who is standing near the middle of the pitch. Simply massive range. Shame he lacks Youngs vision and attacking verve though. Hopefully Harrison will be on the same conditioning programme as Ford.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Bathite he often does that because he knows Flood is coming flat and at pace. By taking a couple of steps he stops the defence drifting out and covering Flood's attacking threat. If they drift he snipes, if they don't drift he released Flood and the pre planned attack. If has worked for several seasons at Tigers. It doesn't work when Youngs does it with a Farrell/Wilko style 10 who is standing 15m away from the gainline and approaching at a slow jog.

His passing accuracy and speed could do with a little fine tuning though as sometimes Flood has to reach for it and it can knock him out of his stride a bit. His understudy at Tigers, Sam Harrison, has a precise bullet of a pass and the kid can pass like that from the back of the scrum for some 30 odd metres. He can be at a ruck near the touchline and make the pass go straight to the hands of the 10 who is standing near the middle of the pitch. Simply massive range. Shame he lacks Youngs vision and attacking verve though. Hopefully Harrison will be on the same conditioning programme as Ford.

Hopefully he won't do that too often Sam as I'd expect a few intercepts over time.

Plus Youngs, I think - like Genia - can afford to stutter in the pass delivery phase. Class players have more time somehow.

True Portnoy it'll be a quick ball move when the defence is being drawn in. Having a big passing range on a scrum half is never a bad thing. He's a young Hinckley lad so it's nice to have another local boy chomping at the bit to play for his team. He's another that will need to bulk up if he's to compete at the AP level regularly, Ben Youngs did that a few years ago though.

That's b ollocks mate, he does it with whichever fly half he plays with. It doesn't stop the defence drifting out, it doesn't commit any defenders, it allows them to drift onto him and cramp the flyhalf and make it harder for anyone to make the gainilne. If you played fly half or 12, you would know how frustrating it is and converserly how easy it is to defend against.

I'm a bit old school, I like my SHs to have a bullet pass and a good box kick. Sadly, these are the two weaknesses of Youngs game. Not doubting his immense talent and his attacking ability with the ball in hand is second only to Genia. I just prefer the Dickson, Bracken type SH to the more modern, sniping, running type.

Horses for courses.

I played fly half almost every game of last season. I played with two scrum halfs, one who uniformerly passed from the base and never sniped and one who pick and looked what was on before passing.

There's pros and cons both sides and it depends on the opposition. The best games I had were with the sniping 9 because the openside was always stuck close to the ruck keeping an eye on him (he has ex-Portugese military and hard as nails so he took some dragging down if he sniped). I took some of the biggest hits of my life playing with the other 9 as he only ever passed from the base so it was easy to target our pods and I generally had the backrow rush me en masse. It's a lower (much) level but the analogy is the same. You have to have something to tie the opposition defence in before you spread the ball.

I agree with you on Youngs weaknesses and so do the Tigers coaching staff, Keiran Bracken is the scrum half coach at Tigers and comes in once a fortnight to work on their key skills. Youngs actually has a decent box kick (see second test vs SA) but I do wish he'd tighten up that pass as you say. I can't say I prefer the Dickson type of 9, I want the 9 as a creative threat not just a distribution option.

Didn't know that Bracken was the coach! Weird coincidence.

There's definitely a balance and you're right, a SH needs to keep the back row honest, but if he does it 9/10, it becomes easy to defend. It isn't in these situations from slow ball that Youngs makes his breaks anyways, that happens in broken play and/or turnover ball and quick ball.

Not really, he's looking for a jumper in the defence. He wants a defender to step out and come in for the big hit on either himself or one of the supporting forwards/backs. Give the guy a gap and he'll scamper through. Doesn't always work but on slow ball there's no often a lot going. He certainly tries it in the wrong areas and at the wrong times sometimes but he is only 22 so like Genia he's still learning and will have the ups and the downs of development.

Certainly in the second test the Boks didn't know what to do with him in defence and ditto for Quins in the AP final when he dragged Tigers back into the game. That impact will hopefully become more consistent over the next season as he should be fully fit at the start for a change.