Ben Youngs relishes partnership with George Ford

Leicester Tigers scrum-half Ben Youngs lavished praise on his club and England team-mate George Ford as the Welford Road outfit opened their account in the ongoing Aviva Premiership season.

Youngs scored two early tries in the game and was followed by a third try from Nick Malouf while Ford slotted all three conversions and kicked a penalty as well to help Leicester Tigers claim a 24-10 win over Gloucester Rugby.

"We are certainly working hard on the training ground to get that telepathic understanding of each other," Youngs said.

"It is nice when some of the bits we've been working on come off. There is no doubt he is an unbelievable footballer.

"The conversation we've had over the last two weeks is what can we do better, how can we help the team, as half-backs, to get the team in the game?

"We are desperate to try and improve each other and really build that relationship for the club foremost, and then international hopefully on the back of that.

"You would like to think that playing together every week you are going to get a lot better understanding of each other.

"You are going to be in situations in games where you both experience it at the same time, if that makes sense.

"If you play in a game where you are on the back foot and the lineout is not working, you have actually experienced that together already and you have already come up with solutions of what you will do differently next time, rather than do it at international level and not have had that mutual experience and perhaps come unstuck.

"When things go well, it's great. But equally, when it doesn't work, we both understand 'right, this is what we need to do, this is what I need from you and you need from me'. That can only help.

"He understands the game unbelievably well. He knows everyone's role and what they should be doing, so he is able to coach while training.

"And he demands excellence because he knows where he wants to get to and where the team wants to get to.

"He is on it every day. He knows when to unwind and have a laugh but when the time is right, he is absolutely on it. He's a perfectionist in terms of what he wants and how he wants it to be."

Leicester started the 2017/18 season with defeats against Bath and Northampton Saints and were desperate to arrest the losing streak. Youngs believes the win at Welford Road last weekend will keep them in good stead as they head to Twickenham Stoop to face Harlequins on Saturday.

"We had to get this win," Youngs added. "There are certain times in the build-up, you know you just have to win.

"That probably showed in the first half with our urgency, our desire to get over the line. But knowing how hard the competition is, there is a part of me massively frustrated that we were unable to get the bonus point.

"I do think when we get everyone on the pitch and we are right and everyone is firing, without doubt we can be (title contenders).

"We are probably not holding our hands up yet to do it, but no one wins it in September."

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