British & Irish Lion Ben Youngs believes he kicked his way into the England starting XV last month after featuring against Samoa and Australia.
Youngs, who made seven appearances on tour with the Lions last year, had taken a backseat with England after Danny Care had made the No.9 shirt his own.
But head coach Stuart Lancaster plumped for Youngs in the victories over Samoa and Australia, and is now seemingly the man to beat at scrum-half.
And the Leicester Tiger says work on his footballing skills have added the extra dimension to his game needed to mix it with the very best.
“I think that I’ve come to realise that at nine you cannot just have a good running game or a good passing game,” Youngs told the Daily Telegraph.
“You have got to be able to do everything. Kicking is something I have worked on and it was nice to see that hard work paying off last weekend. I was pleased with that aspect of my game especially.
“You’ve got to be able to control the game at Test level. You look at how games are won at that level and a lot of it comes down to how the territory battle is won through kicking."
Yet 25-year-old Youngs insists he has not sewn up his place at scrum-half for the foreseeable future with Care waiting in the wings.
He added: “I don’t think I will ever feel (first choice) because there have been so many times when I have played and then not,” he said.
“I don’t ever think it is mine. All I know is that I think I have put in a good performance. It is something to build on but I have to make sure that I continue to do that now at Leicester."
