100 up for Ben Youngs

Kudos also to Ben Youngs who will win his 100th test cap against Italy on Saturday.

It is fair to say that Youngs divides opinion – on his day he can be superb but arguably at times he has been fortunate to be selected on form ahead of possibly more deserving rivals. As a result, while Youngs has been accumulating caps, the England scrum half position has lacked experienced back up for some time now.

Youngs’ resilience has been important – he has managed, for the most part, to be injury-free when it has mattered but as a result, certainly since Danny Care fell out of favour, England have failed to build depth in the position.

Eddie Jones talks of Youngs, who is now 31, going on to win 150 caps – but if that were to be the case then I would argue that something has gone seriously wrong with England’s player pathway. That said, if Eddie continues not to give other scrum halves international experience then I guess his prediction may become self-fulfilling.

Let’s not, however, let all that detract from Youngs’ achievement. 100 caps is one heck of a landmark. Only one other player – Jason Leonard – has chalked up over a ton of caps for England, so Ben Youngs will be in exalted company.

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was