Care shows Lions class as Quins storm on
DANNY Care’s scrumhalf master class laid the foundations for a crushing victory over Warriors and may have pressed his outside chances further of sneaking into Warren Gatland's Lions party.
Care may not be on Eddie Jones’ wanted list and the 34-year-old is losing hope of adding to his 84 Test caps. But the livewire could be an outsider for the flight to South Africa.
He grabbed one of the tries at the Stoop and Quins’ assistant coach Jerry Flannery, who agonisingly missed out on playing for the Lions in 2009 through injury, enthused: “I would definitely not discount him getting on that plane.
“You would be hard pressed to find a scrumhalf playing better than him in the Premiership right now. He’s been outstanding all season and was top notch tonight.
“Danny is enjoying the fact we are playing some good attacking rugby and he’s playing a major part in driving the team forward and why we are high in the table.
“The whole squad is being driven by a determination to get into that top four and get some reward
at the end of what has been an exciting and successful season so far. We never envisaged we would be in this position when Gussy (Paul Gustard) left but even second place is not impossible.”
Care, the Premiership
Player of the Month for March, is thriving as Quins set their sights on the play-offs and try to prove they are realistic title contenders after so many years out of the Premiership spotlight.
He used his quick hands and brain to help Quins soar into a 31-14 half-time lead.
It took just over two minutes for Care to break away for the opening try. The No.9 burst over unchallenged after darting round the side of a Quins maul.
Warriors responded straight away with their first attack resulting in scrum-half Francois Hougaard feeding the ball to the waiting Niall Annett, and the hooker powered his way across.
Alex Dombrandt charged through a fairly non-existent Worcester defence to slip a pass to Marcus Smith who strolled across with no opposition player within a few metres.
Worcester replied with lock Joe Batley charging over for the visitors’ second try, also converted by Billy Searle.
Care unselfishly gifted centre Andre Esterhuizen a try when Mike Brown leapt and intercepted Searle’s cross-field punt.
The hosts had the bonus point in the bag ten minutes before half-time thanks to prop Wilco Louw bull-dozing his way across from close range.
Flanker Will Evans grounded the ball in the right hand corner one handed shortly into the second half for another try and Warriors were undersiege.
Evans then used force rather than finesse to surge over the line.
Last-ditch tackling denied Cadan Murley a try as he dived over the line after Dombrandt and Smith had combined down the left wing.
Wing Tyrone Green cruised over for the seventh and replacement wing Luke Northmore was on hand to finish off the eighth.
Warriors staged a late flurry with two tries inside a minute from replacement prop Richard Palframan and wing Alex Hearle to snatch a try bonus point but Quins’ were already coasting.
Worcester remain rooted to the bottom of the table without fears of relegation, of course, but the atmosphere around Sixways will not have been improved by this showing.
They have still failed to win a Premiership game on the field since the opening day of the season and now trail eleventh place Gloucester by seven points.