Sometimes we forget that rugby is just a game and those who play it are human beings. The outcome of Northampton’s game against Leicester at Twickenham on Saturday matters, of course, but so does raising funds for the injured Wallaby Rob Horne, whose right arm has been paralysed since last April’s fixture between the two sides. To adapt the wise cricketing maxim of CLR James, what do they know of rugby who only rugby know?

It has been a particularly big week for perspective. On Tuesday the remarkable Matt Hampson, such an inspiration to so many at Leicester and beyond, opened his Get Busy Living centre for people who, like him, have suffered life-altering sporting injuries. Joe Marler, meanwhile, has quit Test rugby at the peak of his powers to spend more time with his family. The oval ball gives plenty but it can also exact a hefty toll.

Few are better acquainted with the emotional highs and lows than Leicester’s captain Tom Youngs, for whose family the past few years have been particularly difficult. Thankfully his wife Tiffany is now in full cancer remission – “She’s doing really well, she’s flying along” – after being told last year she might have as little as four weeks to live.

Only latterly has her husband appreciated what a stressful a period it was: “I probably didn’t realise how much emotion it was taking out of me. I’d be tired and a little bit lethargic in games and my engine would blow up quicker than normal. I’d be thinking: ‘Why? I can’t be fit enough any more.’ This year I feel loads better, the body feels almost springy. I feel like a new man.”

Listening to the 31-year-old hooker reflecting on those fraught times this week, it seems incredible he scarcely missed a match. “I’d be in situations where I’d be having to get our daughter Maisie out of bed at 3am in order to take Tiffany to hospital because she wasn’t well at all. I’d drop Tiff at the front door, head home again and then be playing against Toulon the next day.” Few at the club knew the half of it. “My thought process was pretty straightforward. I could either let it affect me or test myself and show some character. I didn’t tell anyone about it. No one knew, apart perhaps from my brother and my parents. I’d only tell people afterwards. I didn’t need to worry them.”

I'd take my wife to hospital at 3am and then be playing against Toulon the next day

The occasional missed lineout, in such circumstances, barely rates. The fact Leicester were also losing matches, however, made things even harder. “There were some very dark times. When Tiffany was ill, rugby was a release for me, an opportunity to let frustrations out, but there’s also severe pressure. Leicester were losing six on the bounce and you’ve got all these other things going on. It’s very tough. But I’m quite a positive person. I like to crack on.”

He has also found it can help to talk more openly. “Some people found it too hard to ask me. You have to respect them for that. There was just this elephant in the room. If someone did ask me I’d tell them, without going into too much detail.” Only now, with Tiffany on the mend, can he switch his full attention to nursing Leicester back to health.

Youngs wants to ‘build a battleship’ at Leicester after the club’s recent struggles. Photograph: Patrick Khachfe/JMP/Rex/Shutterstock

The Tigers have long been a genuine family concern at the Youngs’ farmstead in Norfolk: Tom, his brother Ben and their father Nick have all represented Leicester and England and the club’s recent pain has been keenly felt. Wallowing in the league’s bottom half with a demanding European pool looming and an interim head coach, Geordan Murphy, at the helm is not what the scrum doctor ordered.

Youngs, characteristically, refuses to duck the truth – “It’s been a shitfight” – nor swerve some uncomfortable home truths. “Leicester as a club have sat still a little bit and I don’t think they’re ashamed to say that. Looking at all the coaches we’ve been through it obviously hasn’t been right. It’s very hard to build a team and momentum if the foundations aren’t quite right. There are little things we’re trying to improve in the environment to get those foundations rock solid again.”

Among them has been reminding everyone that the traditionally lofty expectations around the Tigers are no longer mirrored in present-day reality. “There are too many people coming through our door who just expect it to happen by putting this badge on,” continues Youngs, patting his chest for emphasis. “You have to go back to your roots and realise it’s not just about putting the shirt on. When we won stuff we worked incredibly hard. It doesn’t just happen. We’ve lost that a little bit. The Worcester game last month probably showcased where we were at. It was pretty emotional on the following Tuesday. Unfortunately in professional sport, things don’t just change overnight. It’s not going to be done by the end of this month, it’s not going to be done by Christmas.”

In Murphy, at least, they have an insider who cares deeply. “He used a good metaphor the other day,” reports Youngs. “He said to the players: ‘Right, the ship’s out on the water, it’s been damaged a fair bit. Now it’s my turn to patch it up and build a battleship’.” The club captain sounds similarly driven: “Sometimes you do think: ‘Can I keep doing this?’ But I absolutely love playing rugby and the fire’s still in the belly. I’ve only got a few years left, I don’t bury myself in a fitness session not to achieve anything. I want to be a part of rebuilding Leicester again. The club has given me a lot and I want to be here to fix it up and get it ready to go again. If I can even help one per cent towards that happening I’ll be a happy man.”

If anyone deserves to revisit the sunlit uplands it is the impressively resilient Youngs family. In the shorter term, however, there is Rob Horne to think about. “If we can help him to help his family and take away some of the worries he has about life in his head that’s what it’s about,” stresses Youngs, his voice softening once more. “You’ve got to remember we are human beings. It’s a massive game this weekend but there are other things going on in life outside rugby.”