England must contain Faf – Youngs

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Bok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk
  • Post published:June 14, 2018

England scrumhalf Ben Youngs says they gave Faf de Klerk far too much time on the ball at Ellis Park.

The Springbok scrumhalf played a Man of the Match role as his team fought back from 24-3 down to claim a memorable 42-39 victory. De Klerk’s running game and quick service from the ruck were particularly good.

Youngs told Sky Sports that England needed to police him better if they are to level the series in Bloemfontein.

‘Faf is a livewire. A lot of us know him from the Premiership and have played against him,’ Youngs said. ‘He’s a lively, lively player. He challenges around the ruck, has good distribution and can chuck it long.

‘It was frustrating that we gave him room and allowed him to basically do whatever he wanted to do on the front foot. For Saturday, there’s a big emphasis on getting set early and making sure we’ve got the right spacing. On the back of that hopefully we can then cut down Faf’s time and space.

‘He’d still be a good operator and still be able to cause us trouble, but we’ll give ourselves a damn better chance than what we were doing at Ellis Park.’

Photo: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images