Ben Youngs has thrown his weight behind Eddie Jones’s gamble to use George Ford as a stand-in scrum-half at this year’s World Cup in Japan.

Jones rolled the dice on Monday when he selected his 31-man squad and elected to take just two No 9s — Youngs and Willi Heinz — and bank on Ford to step in if needed.

Youngs insists the 26-year-old has the skills to get England out of a hole if they are short.

He said: ‘He did it a few times during the Six Nations in training, and he’s a great kicker and distributor.

‘Of course it’s out of position, but there have been a few times in his career when a nine has been sin-binned and he’s had to go there for 10 minutes, so he’s comfortable enough. He is more than capable of doing that.’