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Target me, challenges Young
By Wayne Smith, via Fox Sports
January 24, 2006
DISMISSED last season as a spent force in international rugby, veteran Wallabies and Brumbies loosehead Bill Young yesterday challenged rival teams to target him if they believe he is truly a weak link in the scrum.
Refreshed from his first off-season since 2000 after sitting out the disastrous Wallabies' spring tour, Young, 31, returns to the fray boosted by three intensive months of pumping iron.
Having played the last of his 46 Tests - against the All Blacks in Auckland last September - at 108kg, he now is the heaviest of his career, 115kg. "Hopefully the extra bulk will make it easier for me to manage situations," said Young.
With Springbok coach Jake White harping on relentlessly about Young's supposedly illegal scrummaging, he found himself in the situation of being caned by rivals before Test matches, by referees during them and by the media afterwards.
The subsequent announcement he was being "rested" from the Wallabies' tour was interpreted by most critics as a gentle nudge out of the Test arena.
It was only a few weeks later, when the Australia scrum was shaken by France and then shattered by England, that the realisation dawned that Young's guile and experience might have been the only things holding the whole sorry mess together.
Young admitted yesterday he was bemused that fingers were always pointed at him.
"I've had to work with about nine different tightheads during my tenure as the loosehead for Australia over the past six years," he said. "I haven't really had the opportunity to create any sort of combination."
Throw in the half-dozen hookers he also has partnered, and it is little wonder Young envies the partership forged by Ewen McKenzie, Phil Kearns and Tony Daly, who played 36 Tests as a front-row unit in the early 1990s.
"It can be difficult at times. I was the one who was always there so I was an easy scapegoat," he said. "That's fine. I've got to be accountable for my performances so by no means do I make excuses or say we scrummaged well last year, because we didn't."
Echoing views voiced by McKenzie, now Waratahs coach, and Reds coach Jeff Miller, Young is adamant that the blame for Australia's scrummaging woes should not be dumped entirely at the feet of the two props.
"I think we have to go back and look at the entire platform being set up by the back five and the three front-rowers and not just rely on the guys in the No.1 and No.3 jerseys to do the job," he said.
Young took no pleasure in watching the man who replaced him at loosehead, Matt Dunning, humbled along with tighthead Al Baxter and hooker Brendan Cannon in the Twickenham debacle.
His sympathy, however, will not extend to conceding the No.1 jersey to Dunning. Young is intent on winning it back this year. From there, he can set about restoring his and the Wallabies' scrummaging reputation before next year's World Cup.
"It can be done. There's at least 45, 50 first class games to be played between now and the World Cup. That's a lot of football for front-rowers to work out where the scrum scene is going."