Tom is as honest, hard-working and gregarious as they come; undoubtedly one of rugby\u2019s good guys. And there are not many who deserve a few years of the good life as much as the former hooker, who has already experienced more in his 39 years on this planet as many do in a lifetime.<\/p>\n
He started as a budding centre, making his Tigers debut on Boxing Day in 2006. But with it looking as though he might slip through the net, Leicester\u2019s former director of rugby Richard Cockerill convinced Youngs to switch to hooker. From there, Youngs won 28 caps for England in the front row, three for the Lions, and won the Prem with Leicester in 2013 and, although he retired a few months prior, in 2022.<\/p>\n
That is the sporting side. Off the field, Youngs had to deal with the cancer diagnosis of his wife, Tiffany, in 2014. Tragically, Tiffany passed away in 2022, less than a month after Leicester\u2019s last league triumph. Now, he is the fourth generation of his family to run their farm, complete with burger joint.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been the ups and downs of life,\u201d says Nick.<\/p>\n
Tom adds: \u201cI just learnt a bit earlier, maybe. Hopefully, mate, [the next few years will be kinder] but we\u2019ll see \u2013 life might not be like that! That\u2019s the reality of life. I\u2019m here, having a good time; doing things like this is exciting, and I love farming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ronnie the dog starts to become a bit of a nuisance. \u201cHe needs to go in the truck,\u201d says Tom. Ronnie the dog is carted away, replaced by Ben the human.<\/p>\n
I ask Tom about brother Ben\u2019s involvement. \u201cRocking up when he wants to,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cChief burger taster, I\u2019d say,\u201d Ben, 36, interjects. \u201cSome would say that\u2019s \u2018not involved\u2019 but I say it\u2019s quite an important role… I\u2019ve enjoyed it too much after retirement!<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done my bit behind the bar. The first time I came, I got… well stuck in behind the bar. I left cross-eyed!\u201d<\/p>\n
The conversation swiftly turns to rugby. Leicester travel to Franklin\u2019s Gardens to face East Midlands rivals Northampton in the Prem play-offs. The last time that happened, in 2014, the Saints defeated the Tigers 21-20 thanks to a dramatic Tom Wood try. Oh, and Tom was punched in the face by Salesi Ma\u2019afu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom is as honest, hard-working and gregarious as they come; undoubtedly one of rugby\u2019s good guys. And there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[81784,46723,5903,23451,217,101,5438,214627,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-634517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-ben-youngs","tag-leicester-tigers","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-union","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-standard","tag-tom-youngs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}