Jason Leonard’s classy message to Ben Youngs ahead of caps record
Ben Youngs is set to become England’s most capped player ever today if he comes on from the bench, overtaking Jason Leonard’s record of 114 caps.
The World Cup winning prop sent a classy message to his compatriot today ahead of the Six Nations match against Wales, saying he “couldn’t want for a better individual to pass the mens caps record.”
“All the best Ben Youngs,” he wrote on Twitter. “I know Twickenham will raise the roof for your 115th cap, as I will be one of them!
“I couldn’t want for a better individual to pass the mens caps record too as you are an absolute credit to the game.
“An absolute honour to have held the record for so long.”
Youngs’ England teammates have spoken about what the mood in camp this week ahead of the Leicester Tigers scrum-half breaking the record.
“We presented him with his match shirt. He’s quite an understated guy and he was very understated this morning (Friday),” second-row Charlie Ewels said.
“We all clapped and he said: ‘we can all celebrate this more after the game.’ What an amazing guy.
“You have an impression of these superstars and what they are going to be like and then you meet the most salt of the earth bloke in the world.”
England
1. Ellis Genge, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Charlie Ewels, 5. Maro Itoje, 6. Courtney Lawes (c), 7. Tom Curry, 8. Alex Dombrandt, 9. Harry Randall, 10. Marcus Smith, 11. Jack Nowell, 12. (TBC), 13. Henry Slade, 14. Max Malins, 15. Freddie Steward.
Finishers
16. Jamie George, 17. Joe Marler, 18. Will Stuart, 19. Nick Isiekwe, 20. Sam Simmonds, 21. Ben Youngs, 22. George Ford, 23. Elliot Daly.
Wales
1. Wyn Jones, 2. Ryan Elias, 3. Tomas Francis, 4. Will Rowlands, 5. Adam Beard, 6. Ross Moriarty, 7. Taine Basham, 8. Taulupe Faletau, 9. Tomos Williams, 10. Dan Biggar, 11. Josh Adams, 12. Nick Tompkins, 13. Owen Watkin, 14. Alex Cuthbert, 15. Liam Williams.
Replacements
16. Dewi Lake, 17. Gareth Thomas, 18. Leon Brown, 19. Seb Davies, 20. Jac Morgan, 21. Kieran Hardy, 22. Gareth Anscombe, 23. Jonathan Davies.
All the best @benyoungs09
I know Twickenham will raise the roof for your 115th cap, as I will be one of them!
I couldn’t want for a better individual to pass the mens caps record to as you are an absolute credit to the game
An absolute honour to have held the record for so long pic.twitter.com/Cm6AbeB0DB— Jason Leonard (@JasonLeonard114) February 26, 2022
