#Ben Youngs

With Steve Borthwick set to announce his chosen 36-man squad on Monday morning, former England number eight and ex-Worcester Warriors defence coach Nick Easter spends a morning playing selector, with balance and Premiership form at the top of his thinking. "Borthwick's first England side is obviously a key selection," Easter said. "The simple truth…

Richard Wigglesworth has made seven changes as Leicester look to bounce back from recent Premiership defeats and continue their successful European campaign at Clermont. The Tigers suffered heavy losses to Newcastle and Sale in their last two league outings. But Leicester beat Ospreys and Clermont in the Heineken Champions Cup before Wigglesworth…

Scrum-half Ben Youngs will captain Leicester for the trip to Clermont Free rugby tips, best bets and analysis for Friday's Champions Cup match between Clermont Auvergne and Leicester Tigers. BT Sport 2, 8pm Friday Clermont -5 1pt 10-11 Hills Paddy Power are giving away free bets to new and existing customers and all you need is an account. Sign…

England face their day with destiny as they take on South Africa with the title of being world champions on the line England are the bookmakers' favourites heading into the Rugby World Cup Final. South Africa stand in England's way of their second-ever world title - and already have a victory over the Red Rose in this fixture. Back in 2007, they…

ENGLAND are in Paris as they look to deprive the French of a Grand Slam. Eddie Jones' men battled bravely against Ireland last week after having Charlie Ewels sent off 82 seconds into the match. However, they ultimately went down to a 32-15 defeat, leaving them out of the running for the Six Nations title. The French meanwhile have been in…

Of the 26 titles handed out over the course of the Heineken Champions Cup, 13 of them sit in the bottom half of this season's quarter-final draw. The last eight of this years competition is interestingly split. One one side of the draw you have Racing 92, Sale Sharks, La Rochelle and Montpellier - new money and new challengers. On the bottom half…

Ireland travel to Rome to face Italy in the Six Nations this weekend. This year's tournament has not gone to plan so far for Andy Farrell, with his side losing their opening two games against Wales and France. They face an Italian side who are also winless in the competition after defeats to France and England. Farrell has made seven changes to the…

The official men's World Rugby rankings have, for some time now, been widely dismissed. Too often the prescriptive modelling does not accurately reflect the true balance of power. At present World Rugby's top fivereads: 1. South Africa (90.61) 2. France (88.88) 3. All Blacks (88.75) 4. Ireland (88.22) 5. England (84.50) This week, following the…

Here are your rugby morning headlines for Monday February 28. Nigel Owens has waded into the big England versus Wales try furore and insisted it should have been ruled out by referee Mike Adamson. Alex Dombrandt's decisive score became the main talking point after the game with Wales claiming Adam Beard had been pushed out of the lineout, the…

Facing a formidable foe in No. 3 England, Canada will be looking for small victories Saturday at Twickenham. Coach Kingsley Jones is hoping to see the 23rd-ranked Canadian men make inroads at scrums, lineouts and other parts of the rugby test match. "We know the odds are stacked against us. We have to look for those small wins," he said Friday.…

The match, which takes place at BT Murrayfield in Edinburgh, will start at 1645 GMT on Saturday February 8 and will be screened live on BBC. Scotland team: Hogg; Maitland, Jones, Johnson, Kinghorn; Hastings, Price; Sutherland, Brown, Fagerson, Cummings, Gray, Ritchie, Watson, Bradbury. Replacements: McInally, Dell, Berghan, Toolis, Haining, Horne,…

England head coach Eddie Jones has selected his England team to play Japan in the Autumn Nations Series on Saturday. The Aussies' side lost 30-29 to Argentina last Sunday, a sixth defeat in ten matches this year. "We've worked hard this week to improve on last week's performance. We've taken a good look at our preparation and we are happy with our…

All the latest odds ahead of this weekend's quarter-final The countdown to the knockout stages of the Rugby World Cup is underway. All eight teams will have optimism filling the air around them as some hope to upset the odds while others will be looking to prove why they are the favourites. England, Wales and Ireland will be representing the Home…

Rugby's Greatest Championship returns this Saturday and will feature what is set to be a titanic clash between two fierce rivals at Twickenham. It will be the first home match of the tournament for Eddie Jones' side who are looking to build on their 33-0 demolition job in Rome while Wales are riding a wave of confidence following a 20-17 victory…

Thirteen weeks on from the World Cup final England will walk out at the Stade de France on Feb 2 - here is the team I would pick to get the job done and start the 2020 Six Nation s with victory in Le Crunch in Paris. This is the first time in a long while I have had to think about this position. Saracens' issues, his brother's injury (Mako always…

South Africa's Autumn International Series 27-13 demolition of England on Saturday at Twickenham was a brutal reality check for English rugby. England were completely dominated in every department. To further compound what was one of the worst displays by an England rugby team in many a year, the Springboks were down to 14 men going into the final…

Japan came close to besting the All Blacks, and now they face another world powerhouse in England in a litmus test of their improvement. Join The Roar for live scores and rolling coverage from 2:15am (AEDT). England coach Eddie Jones made five changes from the team beaten by Argentina last week. Leicester's Guy Porter, formerly of Sydney Uni, comes…

Wing Jonny May brings plenty of pace to the party for England Free rugby tips, best bets and analysis for Saturday's autumn international between England and Japan. Amazon Prime, 3.15pm Saturday England to win by 21 to 30 points 1pt 3-1 Coral, Ladbrokes England will be looking for a much improved performance following last week's Twickenham defeat…

England are out to put their disappointing defeat to Argentina behind them when they host Japan on Saturday. Having lost 30-29 to the Pumas last weekend, they'll need to show a significant reaction after a below-par performance from many of Eddie Jones' key performers, and will need to be very wary about the threat posed by his former side. Japan's…

Joe Heyes returns from England duty to start for Leicester Tigers against Bath on Saturday afternoon (3pm). The 22-year-old tighthead prop was released from Eddie Jones' squad having not featured in the first two rounds of the Six Nations, while Ollie Chessum, George Ford, Ellis Genge, Freddie Steward and Ben Youngs were retained. Heyes' cover…

The spring-autumn tours ignite in earnest this week as the unlucky Scots accept a different challenge from Fiji, the perpetually dinged up Welsh host presumably fired up New Zealand, the confident Irish clad in blue welcome swaggering South Africa in green, the highly touted French invite the Wallabies to a late night rugby discotheque and the…

The Scots are defending the Calcutta Cup after last year's memorable 11-6 win at Twickenham, Scotland's first at English rugby's HQ since 1983. Gregor Townsend has named an experienced side which will be led by captain Stuart Hogg, winning his 89th cap. Twelve of the Scotland starters from the 2021 match have been picked again. Who: Scotland v…

After the logistical omnishambles of the pool stage foreshadowed the intriguing introduction of two-legged ties in the last 16, we have a compelling line-up of Champions Cup quarter-finals. Headlining it is a meeting between Leicester Tigers and Leinster. For a number of reasons, this clash already feels like a European classic in the making. Given…