Care: I’m not taking the Mickey
DANNY CARE reckons England have proved they are not a Mickey Mouse outfit after sailing into the last eight.
Fresh from a break at Disneyland Paris with his wife Jodie, and three young children Blake, Koha and Rocco, the scrum-half insists England have proved the doubters wrong.
They are three wins from three and have a quarter-final spot booked ahead of their final pool match, against
Samoa in Lille, on Saturday. England are now miles ahead of where they were in a dismal warm-up series. That had brought three defeats in four and bans for Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola.
Care, incredibly in his first away World Cup despite making his debut in 2008, says Steve Borthwick’s side have stunned their followers.
The 36-year-old said: “It seems that people are pleasantly surprised we’re actually doing all right!
“Before the tournament people were saying a lot of stuff about the team. When you don’t play well, do you deserve the negative stuff? I don’t know, but you get it when you wear this shirt.
“The feeling we’re getting is one of massive support and optimism and a belief that maybe there is something in this England team.
“We certainly believe it as players. We’ve loved it so far, the support we had through the whole tournament.
“We’re the lucky 33 that are out here on the biggest stage trying to represent everyone. More pressure on us? I don’t
see it as that, I see it as a privilege that we have the chance to try and put smiles on a few people’s faces.”
England were given time off after last weekend’s 71-0 destruction of Chile.
Care and Ben Youngs, plus Ireland lock Iain Henderson, headed to Disneyland – and the break left Care much lighter in the pocket.
He said: “It was a pricey couple of days. We stayed on site at the Marvel Hotel – and for what I paid I was expecting Iron Man to tuck me in at night!”