Ben Youngs: I'd love Owen Farrell to silence haters but he won't make Lions

Times

23-04-2025

Ben Youngs does not expect Owen Farrell to be selected for the British & Irish Lions tour by his father, Andy, this summer — but would love him to go and stick two fingers up to his critics.
Youngs, whose 127 appearances for his country make him England's most-capped male player of all time and who featured in two Lions Tests in 2013, spent 11 years playing with Farrell.
The scrum half believes Farrell was 'one of the best captains I played under', but thinks that Finn Russell, Sam Prendergast and one of Fin or Marcus Smith will be the fly halves in the Lions squad, which will be revealed on May 8. His favoured scrum halves are Jamison Gibson-Park, Alex Mitchell and Tomos Williams.
Youngs thinks that Owen Farrell could make it as an inside centre, but feels his selection is unlikely. Farrell has had an injury-hit year at Racing 92, who sit 11th in the Top 14.
Farrell stopped playing for England after the 2023 World Cup, where he was often booed by fans. The effect that had on him and his family was cited as a reason for his decision to quit international rugby and join a French club. Youngs, therefore, would like to see Farrell's redemption tale be completed this summer on the Lions tour to Australia.
'It would be a nice story,' Youngs said. 'I would love to see him go, and to get the recognition he deserves, because he had a shit time of it towards the back end of 2023. It was unkind.
'He should be celebrated. I would love to see him go and dominate and stick it to everyone, give it the Vs. Will it happen? I don't know. It's probably unlikely he'll go, but part of me would love to see him go and absolutely smash it. I could see him going as a No12, not a No10.
'As soon as you start naming your centres, you can get to three or four, but beyond that it's quite hard. He just has the mentality for it.'
Youngs is retiring from rugby at the end of the season, after 18 years as a professional at Leicester Tigers. He wants Premiership Rugby to reform itself quickly or predicts it might lose its moment to capture new fans.
He believes the current league structure is too messy and staccato, which is diminishing the vibrant on-field product. Youngs would like the league season to be played in one block over a shorter period, rather than starting in September and ending in June with various breaks to accommodate the November Tests, the Six Nations, Champions Cup and Premiership Rugby Cup competitions.
Youngs feels that English rugby could be like Japanese League One, which has 12 teams in its league who play 16 fixtures between December and June.
'The actual product is terrific, but I don't think we've got the schedule or calendar, or where it needs to be right to attract new people, fans and sponsors,' Youngs said.
'It's so stop-start. I look at the Japanese league and everyone goes: 'How good is that? It's small, it's only 12 teams…' Well, we've got ten teams, yet our season goes on forever.
'You'd have to put some fallow weeks in, for player welfare, but you need to find a way of doing it in a bigger block. I look at the Hundred or the Indian Premier League [cricket tournaments] and there's something to be said for making it like that [played in one block] — make it a soap opera, with a big build-up.
'You look at it now, it's exciting. Sale v Saracens on Friday night has huge jeopardy, we play Quins [on Saturday], there's jeopardy all over the place, but people almost get lost leading up to it.
'The best bit, the grandstand finish, people maybe don't know it's going on. We've got great superstar players like Handré Pollard and Finn Russell, great fanbases, but we haven't cracked the engagement of what it could be.
'The concern is there are only so many times you can get it wrong before you don't recover.'