Ben Youngs confirms whether he will play rugby again following heart surgery

The 34-year-old, England's most-capped men's player, was diagnosed with an irregular, abnormally fast heartbeat. After the incident at Welford Road, Youngs had surgery and expects to be fully fit for the new Premiership season starting in September.

Speaking on his "For The Love Of Rugby" podcast, co-hosted with Tigers teammate Dan Cole, Youngs said: "You know when we joked around on the pod quite a while back, and we had this open training session at Leicester, and I said I was doing fitness, and basically I collapsed.

"Well, not collapsed, but I had to stop and lay down as my heart was pounding away, and the rain was hitting me in the face, and I sort of rolled my head to the side and looked at all these admiring fans - 30 of them - that were all packed out in the main stand at Leicester.

"And I thought: 'This is it, this is how I'm gonna go.'

"I've basically had a few of these episodes and I've had it my whole life. It can just kind of spontaneously happen at any stage of your life or career. And so I have had it my whole life, unknown to me."

Youngs, who retired from international duty after the 2023 World Cup with 127 caps, added: "The club have been amazing, as they so often are with anything like this. I got checked the first time it happened, [then] a second time it happened again.

"I am on the mend, I am recovering. I'll be fine for the start of the season.

"There is a 90% success rate, so I should not suffer now. My ticker should be all good and it won't suddenly kick in and go mental."

Reflecting on past decisions, the RFU has learned from the extended tenures of Eddie Jones and Sir Clive Woodward and is prepared for Borthwick to step down, even if England clinches the Webb Ellis Cup in Australia.

Here, we explore the current odds on who might succeed Borthwick as the next England head coach.

Woodward is the World Cup winning Head Coach who led England’s rugby players to World Cup glory in Australia in 2003.

A former England International and British & Irish Lion himself, prior to his full time coaching career Clive established a successful business career working for nine years with Xerox in the UK and Australia before establishing his own small finance and leasing company.

During Clive’s tenure as Head Coach England moved from 6th in the world to being the number one ranked team, winning every trophy an England team can win.

Currently in charge of Georgia, he was part of the England coaching staff up until the end of the 2023 Six Nations.

Currently the Munster head coach.

Although Baxter joined the England coaching team for the summer tour to Argentina and Uruguay in March 2013, he has no other experience outside of Exeter.

"I would be happy to have a chat about what the role is, how they see it working and what their plans and ambitions are," Baxter said of the England job.

"Unless you know what it is, it's hard to say yes or no to anything. At the same time, I'm not looking for another job! I'm very happy here," he added.

The South African has previously declared an interest in the job. If the double Rugby World Cup-winner became available you have to think the RFU would ditch their preference to appoint Englishmen.

The La Rochelle coach was seen as one of the front-runners to replace Eddie Jones when he was sacked in December.

O’Gara has previously said he would be interested in the job because of the calibre of players available, but when linked to the job he admitted it would be a 'big leap'.

"There’s a lot to that, being the head man it’s very much your vision. Even two people who are very aligned sometimes don’t have the same vision.

“Then again, titles don’t really interest me too much and it’s just what role Scott would like to do, I would like to do and how you share responsibility.

Currently, one of the coaches England would be most interested in having is Farrell, who is achieving impressive results and playing styles across the Irish Sea.

However, whether or not Farrell would want to return to the RFU, where he was previously the defence coach between 2011 and 2015 under Stuart Lancaster - who is currently working in Ireland with Leinster - and left under a cloud after England's disappointing 2015 home World Cup, is another matter altogether.

The former England boss, who has seen his reputation go through the roof since the disastrous 2015 World Cup, is currently Racing 92 boss after joining from Leinster last summer.

ancaster had been Irish province's senior coach since 2016, working under head coach Leo Cullen, while he spent four years as England boss before stepping down after in 2015.

During his time with Leinster, the Irish province won the Heineken Champions Cup in 2018 and four PRO14 titles.

The former England boss revealed he could be interested in a return to England.

“If you ask my wife, she might question my sanity if I said yes. There are probably other parts of the world I would love to coach in as well. The southern hemisphere would be a big challenge for me. I’d love to go and coach in Super Rugby in some way shape or form or international rugby down in the southern hemisphere.

“So, you’d never say never but I think it’s not top of the list and certainly, I think Steve Borthwick will keep the job until 2027. I’m committed here (at Racing) until 2027 so let’s see.

“I don’t think you should never say never. I don’t think you should ever be so hurt or so damaged that you could never go back somewhere. If the political will is there and the time is right, I’d hate to be so hurt or angry about certain things that would stop me from doing certain things. I don’t want to be that kind of person.”