However Youngs looked every bit himself after replacing Sam Harrison at scrum-half in the 57th minute as a Matt Smith try and five Toby Flood penalties inspired the Tigers to a 20-9 win.

All the talk around the England camp at the moment regards team manager Martin Johnson’s resignation and who will come in to replace him and when.

However Cockerill has given England cause for optimism on the pitch at least – insisting Youngs looks well on course for a return to international duty early next year.

“We have been looking after Benny and his knee is in good nick. To get him back and playing is good for him, good news for us and good news for England looking towards the Six Nations,” he said.

“Ben looked good as we have looked after him for the past four weeks. We did enough to win as well – our defence and set-piece were very good.

“I thought we were very consistent over the full 80 minutes and it was an old Tigers’ performance as we squeezed the life out of them.”