Youngs open to playing England games away from Twickenham amid concerning trend

28 August 2023 , 10:06

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Youngs open to playing England games away from Twickenham amid concerning trend

Ben Youngs is open to England playing games away from Twickenham if it helps grow the game.

The Red Rose have continued to base themselves in the south west of London but below par attendances across their two World Cup warm-up games has raised concern.

England were embarrassed by a visiting Fiji side at the weekend as the Pacific Islanders secured a memorable victory in front of just 56,854 fans with the upper tier at Twickenham completely closed.

Since 2015 England have only played two games away from Twickenham - once at the Etihad Stadium and the other at St James' Park. Youngs though is open to heading elsewhere, be that up north of further south, if it increased fan engagement.

He said: "It is out of my control but my thought process is around growing the game so if that meant heading up north or even further down south then potentially yes. But I'm sure these things are being talked about, it is not as if they haven't weighed up the pros and cons of it.

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"I'm sure the more engagement we get is the most important thing and first and foremost how we do that is by having a really good tournament in France to get people engaged and get everyone behind us and off the back of that I'm sure we'll inspire some youngsters to pick up a ball and give it a go".

Youngs, who is preparing for his fourth World Cup, started for the Red Rose when they last played Fiji at Twickenham in 2016. On that day the hosts ran in nine tries in front of a near capacity crowd of 81,409.

Fiji beat England at Twickenham with the entire upper tier left unsold

England's other home game before the World Cup was a narrow home win over Wales despite the Red Rose being down to 12 men at one stage. That contest was played in front of 74,256 fans as ticket prices were massively reduced in an attempt to get bums on seats.

Twickenham is the RFU's greatest money generator and that has previously been cited as a reason behind their decision to keep games in the capital, rather than head north to stadiums that have a lower capacity.

Less than 24 hours before England's humbling loss to Fiji, their fifth loss in their last six games dating back to March, South Africa beat the All Blacks by a record margin in front of a sellout crowd at Twickenham.

England's playing style has been cited among the reasons for fan disillusionment with Steve Borthwick unable to reinvigorate the team following Eddie Jones' sacking. The Red Rose have struggled to score tries with Jonny May becoming the first back to score since March when he crossed the whitewash in the first-half on Saturday.

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Samuel Meade