Benjamin Ryder Youngs (born 5 September 1989) is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a scrum-half for Premiership Rugby club Leicester Tigers, and is the all time appearance record holder with 127 caps for the England national team.

[4] On 24 April 2007 at the age of 17 years and 231 days he became Leicester's youngest ever player used in a league match when he came off the bench against Bristol.

[8][7] Youngs played 10 games for Leicester in the 2007–08 season, principally whilst Harry Ellis was injured.

[17] Following Leicester's home game with Newcastle Youngs was presented with an engraved silver picture frame in recognition of the feat.

[21] In 2024, he underwent a two-hour open heart surgery operation to treat supraventricular tachycardia and another unspecified arrhythmia, conditions he had been suffering from for some time, after collapsing during a game in Leicester's stadium.

[32] Youngs continued to be a steadfast member of the England squad, including call ups for the 2011,[33] 2015[34] and 2019 Rugby World Cups.

This run included the 2016 Grand Slam achieved through a win against the French in Paris,[36] avenging the defeat to Ireland in a match of similar importance in 2011, in addition to being part of the side that secured a 3-0 series triumph against Australia only a couple of months after the tournament ended.

Youngs was part of further Six Nations victories in 2017 and 2020, scoring two tries in the 2020 title decider against Italy to mark his 100th cap in style.

Youngs is only the second Englishman to reach this number after Jason Leonard, and immediately went on to win a further four caps in the inaugural Amazon Autumn Nations Cup [37] as England secured their second piece of silverware of the year.

[42] However, on 6 May 2017, Youngs withdrew himself from the tour party due to family reasons and was replaced by Scotland international Greig Laidlaw.