Care learns patience can pay in waiting game for starting place
Now 30, the scrum-half has a more mature attitude to selection, writes
Danny Care is determined to make the most of his opportunity in the England No 9 shirt against Italy tomorrow having waited the best part of 12 months to wear it again since last starting in the GrandSlam deciding victory against France.
During that time he has had to wait and watch as his long-term rival Ben Youngs established himself as Eddie Jones’ first-choice scrum-half. Being shunted down the pecking order has not always come easily to Care.
Under Stuart Lancaster, Care made no secret of his anger at how he was dropped from the team three years ago.
The equation is different now. Having turned 30 last month, Care is a calmer individual and has learnt the art of patience. “I am experienced enough now to know that if someone plays well then they deserve to keep the shirt,” Care told the BBC. “I am not banging on his door demanding a start. I try to push my case in training and whenever I get a chance off the bench to play as well as I can and just wait for that opportunity. Thankfully it has come this week and it is up to me to repay it. “It’s great to be back in the starting line-up. It has nearly been a year someone reminded me earlier, so it is great to be back playing against Italy in the Six Nations. It is where you want to be. I’m dying to get back out there.” It also helps that Jones has rebranded his replacements as ‘finishers’. That is a job they have lived up to in the opening Six Nations matches against France and Wales. In both matches Care injected extra tempo and played a leading role in the decisive try against France scored by Ben Te’o, another replacement turned starter. Yet even if Care replicates that impact over 80 minutes at Twickenham tomorrow there is no guarantee that he will keep the shirt for Scotland’s visit on March 11. Bath wing Semesa Rokoduguni picked up the man of the match award against Fiji last November but has not been selected since. That ruthlessness in selection creates a tension in every training session and every match that Care says falls on the right side of healthy. “I think I have to be kept on my toes,” Care said. “If you ever think that you are a starter then you will not be there for long. You have to keep pushing yourself. I think Ben and I have been around long enough that we push each other and help each other out. I feel if I am performing well in training and in matches then it will hopefully help him in games and vice versa. I think we have got a good relationship and we push each other. Whoever plays, the other one will shake the other guy’s hands.
“As Eddie has said, there’s a role for everyone in the team whether you are starting or whether you are finishing, you have a job to do. I have enjoyed being a finisher. Obviously everyone wants to start and you want to play as much as you can for England, but whatever role you get in the team you have to fulfil. I think that’s the great nature of the team at the moment.”
Nonetheless playing against an Italy side still reeling from a 63-10 drubbing by Ireland would be seen as the perfect opportunity for Care to press his case for the full-time gig. Yet having played under new Italy coach Conor O’Shea for seven years at Harlequins, Care knows that a backlash will be brewing.
“They will come out firing this week,” Care said. “Conor and the coaches will get them pumped up, which they always are against us. They seem to raise their game every time they play against us.
“They will be looking for a better performance but on the same hand we are looking for a better performance. We have not played as well as we can do yet.”