Care would have been an England great if only he had stuck to the script
There was a time when sitting on the bench was a source of intense frustration in the body and mind of Danny Care. From the age of 12 to 15, Care was a goalscoring forward or winger in the academy of Sheffield Wednesday, but gradually there were taller, bigger lads picked ahead of him, and he packed it in. He turned to rugby – the game he had also been playing, at school and for West Park, Otley, Yorkshire, the North of England, England under-16s and then the Leeds academy, where he came under the tutelage of Stuart Lancaster.
Care was still doing his A-levels when he made his senior Leeds debut at fly-half in a European Shield game in Spain, scored a try, kicked a couple of goals and broke his leg. Where some coaches teach scrum-halves not to drift across the field, the young Care saw how Justin Marshall, Leeds’s eminent All Black, made it work. Care also cottoned on to Marshall’s self-confidence.
As he revealed in an excellent interview with Rugby Journal in 2021, Care soon had contracts dangled by Northampton, Saracens – where the offer was £100,000 a year, up from his 12 grand at Leeds – and Harlequins, whose £80k offer from Dean Richards swung it with talk of the type of player they wanted, and the presence of England under-20 colleagues Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown and Jordan Turner-Hall. Quins’ Aussie firstteam coach Andy Friend said things like “do what you want, quick-tap everything”.
Since joining Quins in 2006, Care made a club-record 369 appearances. But when it comes to internationals, a place on the bench for a scrum-half means something different – another cap added to the total, yes, but also the demand on the player, often, to add something in the second half, or close out a win, or launch a fightback.
Care was suited to this sharpening of the senses, because if you had to be picky and find a weakness in the game of a man who on Monday night retired from internationals with 101 England Tests to his name, it was to very occasionally stray off-script and slip from the peak of performance which, at its best, put him in the top bracket of No 9s worldwide.
And there is another unavoidable inference from wearing the England No 21 jersey for more than half his Test career – it meant someone else had the coach’s greater trust, and that was Ben Youngs, who may have been less of a fan favourite, but whose more stoical style endeared him to Martin Johnson, Lancaster and Eddie Jones. For the 2015
World Cup under Lancaster, Care was nudged into third place by Richard Wigglesworth, whom Care has archly noted was “good mates” with Lancaster’s defence assistant, Andy Farrell.
It is all relative, and as Care reflects on his magnificent achievements, there is a nagging feeling it could have been even better. For the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, Care was unluckily injured; and as for 2019 in Japan, his non-selection by Jones was plain mystifying.
Care had been selected solidly for three seasons by Jones from the Australian’s hiring by England for the 2016 Six Nations – in which Care started the Grand Slam-clinching win in France, and had what he calls “greatest moment in an England shirt”, scoring a sniping try he had cooked up with Jones – through to the summer of 2018.
Then in November 2018 an iffy display against Japan at Twickenham brought a shock end to Care’s England career until Jones recalled him in summer 2022. Steve Borthwick took over from Jones in 2023, and Care went to this season’s World Cup and Six Nations.
The way Care tells the story of the fateful Japan match, Youngs was not available, so Care started and tweaked a hamstring early, but he played on, with Wigglesworth waiting on the bench.
Care was dropped for the next match via a four-second phone message from Jones, then a review meeting between them did not go harmoniously, and that was that.
In the end, Jones took only Youngs and Willi Heinz to the 2019 World Cup, and had to call Ben Spencer for the final when Heinz was injured. All very strange.
A revealing quote from Care in that Rugby Journal interview takes us back to those Leeds days of his, as a 16-year-old with Lancaster: “He was a bit of a head teacher… I remember going to a session and it was very much ‘this is what you need to do’, but I was a footballer and just thought ‘give me the ball and I’ll do whatever’.”
If this observer thinks about the dozens of times I’ve enjoyed watching Care play live, for Harlequins, this trait shines through. His foot speed and fasttwitch reactions have been suited to – indeed, they have helped to shape – the style the London side have used for the past few seasons, including their memorable Premiership title in 2021.
Fans have also adored the individual skills in him: pulling out brave plays like chips over the top, chasing grubbers, clever crosskicks, disguised passes and – a team speciality for a while – making a try-scoring break through a flatfooted opposition line-out.
Looking further back to those times at Sheffield Wednesday, there was another trainee who shared the bench with Care too often for his own liking: one Jamie Vardy, the striker who left soon after Care and dropped down the leagues before fighting back up to earn England honours and the Premier League title with Leicester City.
“Confrontational, gobby, backed himself – I loved it” are the admiring words Care used about Vardy – but it could be a good description of Care himself.
He has been building a new career in the media, and it is interesting England have let him do this while he has been on Test duty.
He has come through setbacks such as a drink-driving ban that led to a brief, early exclusion by Lancaster’s England to a reputation now as a great trainer whose beenthere, done-it experience is being passed on to youngsters.
His smile and self-deprecating, sometimes waspish humour make him an engaging character who finds the company of journalists easy. “If [England in 2019] had won the World Cup and got MBEs, it would have broken me,” he said in that magazine interview, and he was only half-joking.
Always with Danny Care, you knew a will to succeed and belief in himself was burning below the surface.