Ben Youngs has claimed that it will be "extra special" to win his 50th England cap in Friday's World Cup opener against Fiji.

As England look to prove they are contenders for the title on home soil, Youngs will mark the occasion by reaching a milestone in front of the Twickenham crowd, but the 26-year-old insists that his focus is on securing the win.

"I'm obviously very pleased to achieve that," the Leicester Tigers scrum-half told reporters. "It's a wonderful honour to wear the jersey any time but to win my 50th cap in the opening game of the World Cup makes it extra special, so I'm very honoured and proud.

"Once my career is over, I will probably look at it and really understand what it is all about and what an achievement it is, but for sure it's a nice little milestone.

"It's a great honour but at the same time the focus is on Fiji, it's not about anything else. It will be nice but it will all be over in a flash so it's just about going out there and making sure we perform against Fiji."

Youngs is one of nine England players who were in the squad that lost to France in the 2011 quarter-finals.