Danny Care on England, Quins and the wealth of talent pushing him at scrum half

Eddie Jones’ tenure as England head coach has gotten off to a literal perfect start.

Since the announcement that the former Australia and Japan coach would take over as the head of English rugby just over a year ago, Jones has overseen both a grand slam Six Nations win and 3-0 whitewash summer tour of Australia as England rapidly moved on from their embarrassing pool-stage exit of their home World Cup.

But whilst the returns from Jones’ methods have so far borne fruit, he has not been averse to making changes to the existing setup at Pennyhill with little public explanation. One of the key tactical areas Jones has altered has been the promotion of Leicester Tigers scrum-half Ben Youngs into a consistent starter at the position for England after years of Youngs and Harlequins’ Danny Care alternating ownership of the England ‘9’ jersey. However despite being relegated to a secondary role in Jones’ rotation so far, Care – speaking exclusively to Talking Rugby Union – insists Jones has implemented a system that everybody around the squad has bought into.

“Obviously everyone wants to start the games and it’s the same for me I’d love to be starting but Eddie [Jones] has switched it around between me and Ben [Youngs] and Ben has played more times recently but it’s up to me to prove why I should be starting.

“When you come off the bench Eddie calls you a ‘finisher’ you’re not a substitute you’re the guy who comes on to finish the game. Everyone has got a role in the team and if that’s my role for that specific game then I’ve just got to try and do it to the best of my ability.

“I’ve been around long enough to know rugby can change very quickly, you can be second choice for a while and suddenly get an opportunity to play. It’s great to have that competition in the squad and I’ll play whatever role Eddie wants me to play.”

Saturday’s 58-11 victory over Fiji made it a thirteenth consecutive win for the Red Rose and in the process continued England’s untarnished record since Jones’ appointment.

Care once again began that fixture on the bench, making his entrance on the 53^rd minute. But despite the one-sided nature of the win at Twickenham, he asserts there are still areas for improvement.

“Yeah I mean it’s always a tough game when you play against Fiji, they’re an unbelievable team who love to throw the ball around with athletes all over the park.

“We scored nine tries and we’re very happy but there is a bit of a feeling that we could have scored a few more, that said we haven’t beaten them by that margin in a very long time and we did beat a very good team [on Saturday]. It’s easy for people to say it could have been more and yes, it could have been, but we had to grind them down a bit – we started the game brilliantly with three quick tries and then they came back into the game which they were always going to do with the talent they have but we came back and finished them off at the end.

“We’re happy with the win, we’re not happy with conceding three tries – that’s something we’ll be looking to shore up this week.”

Before the season Care was announced as Harlequins’ newest club captain in time for the 2016-17 season and he maintains despite his commitment to England, he keeps a constant eye on the fortunes of his domestic team.

“Being captain of the club it’s weird being away and unable to control what the lads are doing.

“We’ve had two great wins in the LV Cup [during the international period] with some young lads stepping up to the plate and playing really well.

“We always try and keep in good contact with the coaches and the players whilst we’re away because you want to have that seamless transition when you get back.”

Harlequins have had a tumultuous start to the new Premiership season having won four and lost four of their opening eight fixtures and currently find themselves eighth in the Premiership table. But on the training pitch and in the clubhouse Care has preached patience as the club look to rebound on a disappointing 2015-6 campaign that saw them finish seventh and outside of Champions Cup qualification.

“We sat down at the start of [this] season and made it clear we want to reach the knockout stages of every competition we’re in – that means top-four in the Premiership. That’s our aim and we’re striving towards getting back into the top competition in Europe as well.

“We’ve been in the Challenge Cup for the last two years and for a club like Quins it’s not where we feel like we should be but we’ve not played well enough to deserve being in the Champions Cup.

“The standard in the Premiership keeps getting higher and higher to get into the top-six and top-four but we’re taking each game as it comes to work our way up the table. We were eleventh after two or three games and everyone was saying how bad we are and then two wins later and we’re up to fifth and it’s happy again.

“We’re not worrying about what other people are saying about us, we’re not exactly where we want to be but a couple of wins and you’re right back in the mix.”

And Care is enthused about the players Harlequins have to help make that leap back to the top levels both domestically and in Europe, especially those competing alongside him for the starting scrum-half shirt and especially Charlie Mulchrone, a summer signing from Worcester Warriors.

“Charlie has fitted in perfectly into the squad, it’s the type of team that suits his game – he gets to run, he’s a physical nine and loves to tackle and getting stuck – he’s a typical tough northerner and gets his head over the ball, I don’t know what happened to me I never got those traits.

“We’ve got Karl Dickson, we signed Luc Jones on a short-term deal this year and we’ve got a young lad called Calum Waters who’s a real good prospect as well.

“There’s great competition, great friendly rivalry and we all push each other to get better and better, the strength at depth at nine at the club is pretty good.”

Danny Care was speaking on behalf of NatWest and England Rugby at the launch of NatWest RugbyForce 2017. Registrations are now open in England, to find out more or to apply please visit www.englandrugby.com/natwest-rugbyforce