BASINGSTOKE prop Neil Young says one of the hardest things about giving up the captaincy is learning to keep his mouth shut.

The 32-year-old stepped down as ’Stoke skipper during the summer and is still getting used to not being the team’s leader on the pitch.

“When you are out there you have opinions and would sometimes like to do things slightly differently,” he said. “It’s tough but I have got to keep my mouth shut, do my job and support those making the decisions by geeing the lads up.

"When that happens it’s easy to think that I shouldn’t have given up the captaincy but I am enjoying my rugby and still think I made the right decision.”

Basingstoke have had an up and down start to the season, too often following up a good win with a disappointing performance and defeat.

“We have come up against some tough opposition and some of the teams have been better than we had anticipated,” Young admitted. “I also think that being a young squad has shown up a few times.

“Losing 13-0 to Old Albanians on Saturday was a prime example of us being a young team. They were no better than us but adapted to the conditions and had a few old heads who knew what to do.”

Despite this, Basingstoke lie seventh in the National Three London table and remain in touch with the top teams. Young thinks they are better than this and wants to see them end the season further up – though he fears the winter weather could have an adverse effect on results.

“If we finish below where we are we will definitely be disappointed,” he said. “If we are able to climb up a couple of places we will be thinking we could have done better and I think finishing in the top five would be a good result come the end of the season.

“We are coming to what will be the hard part of the season for us now. We like to throw the ball around and the conditions we will be playing in over the next couple of months will not allow us to do that as much as we would like.

“That could be where we struggle but we will have to battle through and pray for good weather.”

Young admits that he is glad to be without a game this weekend and he is targeting a win when Basingstoke return to action next week.

“The week off has come at a good time for me and I have been looking forward to it,” he said. “I just want to relax and recuperate ahead of next week.”

“We will be looking to bounce back from losing last week by going to Haywards Heath and doing a job on them.”