PIER WE GO AGAIN
No New Year knees-up for Care & Co as they head to Brighton boot camp in bid to make it a hat-trick of Six Nations titles
DANNY CARE will spend his birthday next week in Brighton – but he won’t be having a New Year’s beach party.
Instead of popping the champagne, the Harlequins scrum-half will be on the south coast with his England team-mates being flogged by head coach Eddie Jones.
Jones has targeted a ‘Three-peat’ in the Six Nations and urged his men to be history-makers as no team has won three tournament titles on the spin.
Care helped the Aussie boss knock off the first two, with a Grand Slam in 2016 (Mike Brown and Care with the Six Nations trophy, right), and first place this year, when they were beaten only by Ireland.
And the soon-to-be 31-year-old Care is desperate to scale a peak even Martin Johnson’s World Cup-winning legends could not reach.
Care said: “Winning the Six Nations again was huge – to back it up from last year. That is the aim. We want to win every game and it would be great to be the first team in history to do that.
“We will be working very hard to make that happen
“We are there New Year’s Day and on the second – which is my birthday – for a couple of days’ camp, work hard, and start the New Year with a bang.
“It is great to get back and see the boys. You get these periods in the new agreement, between the RFU and the clubs, when you can get together and do a bit of work. I am sure we will be all prepped for the first game of the Six Nations.”
England kick off the tournament against Italy in Rome on 4 February, but first Care has a couple of big club dates.
On Saturday, Quins take on Northampton at Twickenham in Big Game 10 – Care has played in the lot – where a crowd of over 75,000 is expected.
Quins are already out of the Champions Cup after back-to-back defeats to Ulster, but have the game against Saints and a trip to Sale, with the Brighton jaunt for the England boys in between.
Care added: “This period will determine what sort of season we have and, if we come out of it well, we are right in the mix for top four and top six.
“If we don’t, it is going to be very hard to push to where we want to be.
“The Big Game is massive for us and it is amazing what the club have done in 10 years.
“Northampton are a tough team, but have been going through some troubles this year, and it will be a great game for them to get up for as well.”