We can hit top gear in second Test, warns Care

AUSTRALIA .................. 30 ENGLAND ..................... 28

DANNY Care is convinced England will improve in time for the second Test against Australia, but has called for patience when judging the slow progress made in developing their attack.

Care’s comeback after four years in international exile was spoilt by a defeat by the 14-man Wallabies in Perth that saw Eddie Jones’ tourists implode in the final quarter by surrendering a 14-9 lead.

A recurring theme since reaching the 2019 World Cup final has been England’s toothless attack, and beyond a bright start that shortcoming remained evident at the Optus Stadium.

Jones is attempting to implement a new offensive gameplan directed by Owen Farrell and Marcus Smith that focuses on playing with the ball in hand, but Care acknowledges that it is a work in progress.

“It takes time. You can’t just instantly be a brilliantly attack team,” said the Harlequins scrum-half.

“We’ve got different characters in the squad and different team mentalities that we’re trying to bring into one team.

“The new England type of attack wants to be an all-court game. We want to be able to play from anywhere.

“We ran out of our own half a couple of times, we kicked, we exited differently. But we want to play quickly, we want to be confrontational.

“We have some great ballplaying forwards who can batter the door down and then we’re not bad at 12 with Owen. And with Marcus, we’re trying to get that connection going.

“If we can get that going, get some quicker ball on the front foot, hopefully that’s how we will play.

“We lost the game so ultimately we’ve got to look at ourselves and see how we get better.

“The exciting thing is that we know we can be a lot better. We’re desperate to get back out there and show that.”

The loss at Optus Stadium was England’s fourth in a row including the rout by the Barbarians a fortnight earlier, in which they also suffered a meltdown against 14-man opposition.

“I wouldn’t say we’re in a hole. It’s a little bump,” Care added. “Six years ago we had amazing success here in Australia to win the series 3-0, but those games could have gone either way.

“The first one this time has gone their way and we’ll do everything we can to tie it up and take it to a decider.”