In the end, Ben Youngs’s big moment got a little lost in all the excitement. The match was an hour old, and just beginning to slip from England’s grip, when he finally came on for his 115th cap and beat the record set by Jason Leonard back in 2004.
England had been 17-0 up not so very long ago, but Wales, who, for all their flaws, absolutely did not stop coming, had scored two tries, and 12 points, in the last seven minutes. Twickenham was rocking, and England were reeling. The crowd cheered as he walked onto the field, but the sound was quickly swallowed up in the hubbub as England launched their restart downfield.
His teammates had other things on their minds, too. They had only just broken from a huddle under the posts, where they’d been busy plotting the way back into the match, you wondered, in that moment, if they were going to blow it. England have failed in these moments before, they did it at Murrayfield against Scotland just three weeks back, but this time, they clawed their way back into the match, and closed it out.
You would think Youngs has just about seen it all in the 12 years he’s been playing Test rugby, but this situation must have felt a little unfamiliar all the same. He’s usually the one coming off the pitch at this point, not coming on. He did it against Italy in the last round of matches,when England were winning at a canter, but the last time before that was two years previously, when Jones started Willi Heinz in a Calcutta Cup match in Edinburgh.
Youngs took it in his stride. And the change worked. He provided a cool head, steady hand, and sure boot, as England worked their way back downfield and chiselled out a couple of penalties. “Ben has matured into a great team man,” said Eddie Jones afterwards, “there’s no better team man than him, he always wants to be starting but he’s accepted for this game his role was as a finisher.” England are lucky to have him, Jones said, “his kicking, his organisation, his communication, were first class”. Youngs may have to get used to the new role.
Harry Randall played well in the hour he had. It’s always foolish business trying to second guess Jones’ thinking, he will surely want to stick with his burgeoning partnership between Randall and Marcus Smith.
Randall, like every rugby-loving kid, must have dreamed of playing in these games back when he was young. We will maybe have to wait till he’s retired before we get a straight answer about which colour shirt he imagined he would be wearing. He was born in Slough, and has English parents, but the family moved to Wales when he was four, and he grew up playing for Llandovery College, and then the Scarlets. He was the captain of Wales Under-16s, and even turned in a man-of-the-match display for them when they beat England in 2013. He switched to the England Under-18s after he moved back to study at Hartpury two years later.
Randall’s old coach at Llandovery, Iestyn Thomas, says that at the Scarlets they thought he was too small, and his pass was too slow, to make a go of it in the professional game. Thomas was so incensed that he jury-rigged a speedometer to prove them wrong. If Randall’s pass really was lacking back then, it’s sharp enough now. It is startlingly quick compared to Youngs’ slow and deliberate delivery. In fact, there were a couple of occasions when Smith had to snatch twice at the ball because it came at him with so much pace on it.
Randall brings a little urgency to it all, he hurry-scrurries from ruck to ruck and snaps the ball this way and that, pop, pop, pop, to the forwards lumbering up outside him. He has quick hands and quick feet too. He made one break when he sold Nick Tompkins a dummy and stepped inside Tomos Williams, and almost scored himself when he came scuttling in after Kyle Sinckler and took a quick skip through a little sliver of a gap in the Welsh defence. He put Max Malins through with a cute chip too, that sent the ball tumbling end-over-end into the 22, where Liam Williams gathered it and was bundled into touch.
He and Smith made plenty of chances, but England weren’t ruthless enough to take them. They let too many chances go begging, which is what made the second-half of the game so nerve-shredding. That wasn’t Randall’s fault. But Jones was right to take him off when he did. Wales scored again in the 80th minute, and it was good to have Youngs there for those excruciatingly tense final moments, as Wales tried to find a route back to the try-line.
In the end, England won a turnover, and it was Youngs who was there right behind him, barking orders at the forwards. He waited till everything settled, then scooped the ball up and belted it out sideways into touch.
