Nick Cain: Disco kids can lead Wales a dance

Danny Care and Owen Farrell have been dancing to a new beat this season. It emerged this week that when the England half-backs are in camp, attacking skills coach Mike Catt sets up a lighting system in which different coloured bulbs are switched on in various parts of the indoor training arena as ‘Disco Danny’ and ‘Flash Fazz’ run through their moves.
As the key-decision makers in the England side, Care and Farrell have to react instantaneously to the disco lights, which are designed to help the 9-10 combo to keep their heads up so they spot space and chances. Coaches call this “scanning”, and it has been the buzz word in the England camp as they prepare to meet last season’s nemesis, Wales, at Twickenham after edging past Ireland last weekend.
Care was central to that 13-10 victory, the scrum-half making a great support run to tear through from 30 metres out, rounding off the opening carved out by his Harlequins team-mates Chris Robshaw and Mike Brown. Certainly, there was nothing faulty about Care’s scanning equipment as he took an inside line which put him on the end of Brown’s scoring pass.
However, while the win kept England’s Six Nations title hopes alive there was a serious shortcoming attached, just as there was with the 20-0 victory over the Scots that preceded it: Both games highlighted that England find it far harder to finish chances off than to create them.
One try against Ireland was scant return given the opportunities that were created. Care, Farrell, and Billy Vunipola, were guilty of not spotting clear overlaps in the build-up to the early chance which eventually went begging when Jonny May lost control of the ball as he dived for the line.
May failed to test Ireland’s cover defence on one occasion, and Care admits he also should have passed the ball wide to exploit another overlap. It materialised soon after Luther Burrell was stopped just short of the Irish line during a sustained England assault early in the second half.
Although Sherylle Calder, the vision expert bought in by Sir Clive Woodward in 2003 and by Springbok coach Jake White in 2007 to help their World Cup winning teams prepare, has the best track-record in the scanning business, Care says that Catt’s light show has helped.

“It’s good as a No.9 to control the team, and good to get your head up to spot gaps and opportunities. I missed a couple on Saturday. There are six or seven lights dotted around, stuck on a wall, and different coloured lights come on intermittently. You’re practicing your drills but keeping your head up to see the lights. Red light tells you to go there, green light somewhere else. I’ll see a colour, shout it out and go that way. Put into context it’s like me running to a ruck. You don’t want tunnel vision, so you need to be also looking around for your next move.”
Farrell’s view? “It’s making sure that your head’s constantly on a swivel to see what’s going on around you.”
Care points out that the level of crowd noise at Twickenham makes such drills imperative because frequently he and Farrell – and their team-mates – cannot hear each other’s calls. “It was so loud against Ireland you couldn’t hear instructions sometimes, so a lot of it goes down to visuals.”
He adds tongue-in-cheek, “We’ve got a nightclub going on, and we throw a few moves and dance around.”
Farrell accentuates the positives even though the fly-half admits the noise is an obstacle. “It was really hard to hear, but it was fantastic. The atmosphere was unbelievable as it is every time at Twickenham… it was a special place to play in the first place, and it is definitely my favourite place to play by a mile. Especially when you get close to the opposition line five metres out – and it erupts.”
Farrell adds, “We have to make sure we take our opportunities…”
By far the biggest opportunity squandered by England during Stuart Lancaster’s tenure as head coach was the Grand Slam and Six Nations title wrenched off them last season by the Welsh, and the chance for revenge against a team that made them look like a bunch of callow novices, is a great motivator according to their half-backs.
Care, who was on the bench in Cardiff, bears witness to the 30-3 defeat: “It was tough for everyone…watching it you did feel helpless, but I didn’t add much when I came on. I didn’t do anything to rectify the situation. I probably tried a bit too hard. A poor day all round. We caught Wales on a very good day. Afterwards it was gutting to come that close to a Slam – it’s twice for me now that we’ve lost the last game.”
Farrell says he found a way to deal with the devastation: “It was probably the most gutted I’ve felt. But you also see it as an opportunity. Maybe not for a couple of days. But you see it as chance – you watch every champion team and they have to go through things like that to get to where they get to.”
The Irish game served England timely notice of another of international rugby‘s realities – fail to take your chances and you tread the tightrope of being edged out in games where there is only one score in it. Not that they needed any reminders after their last-gasp loss in Paris, and Joe Launchbury‘s tap-tackle on Dave Kearney, Dave Attwood’s disruption of an Irish driving maul and turn-over of Paul O’Connell, and the overall discipline of their defence in the frenetic final 15 minutes, should be seen in that context.
Care and Farrell were at the heart of England’s late lock-down, just as they were instrumental in the comeback, contributing all 13 points with Care’s touchdown and Farrell’s two penalties and a conversion.
This was captured in the way Care scampered back to lash a Jonny Sexton chip into touch, and the way that Farrell, whose line-kicking was pin-point, eventually out-played the illustrious Irish fly-half.
Where Sexton began to lose his bearings – notably by kicking a restart straight out before Care’s try – Farrell finished strongly after a mixed start marked by a couple of over-hit hoists and a late charge on Conor Murray.
Farrell concedes that the Murray incident was not a high point and counts his blessings that there was no yellow card. “I have actually wrapped my arms before he’s hit the floor…looking back at it, it probably looks a bit worse than I thought it was. In hindsight, you wouldn’t have done it like that if you knew it looked like that. I’ve got to make sure that nothing happens again like that. But I’ll still play with the same intent.”
Overall, there is a down-to-earth candidness about both members of England’s current half-back combination, and a desire to set the record straight on a number of fronts.
Care has a track-record of missing out. In the autumn he was bumped to third in the scrum-half pecking order after being told to work on his kicking and tackling. An injury two weeks before the 2011 World Cup saw him replaced in the England squad, and the same happened before the 2012 Six Nations when he was axed after a drink-driving charge.
Care says, “Everything Stuart Lancaster told me to go and work on I had, and I felt I’d improved…it’s a reward for what I put in away from the England camp. I’m loving every minute of it. I’m massively driven to make the World Cup. Missing out last time was heartbreaking…then, after everything that happened two years ago, not being in the Six Nations hurt. All I want to do is play for England as many times as I can, and try and win the World Cup.”
Now 27, the Quins scrum-half reflects, “I’m one of the oldest lads in the squad which is scary – you’ve got to stand up and help the younger lads through.”
One of those younger lads is Farrell, 22, but with the fly-half now in his third Six Nations campaign, Care says they are on the same wavelength.
“I’d been really looking forward to playing with him, and we’re bringing out the best in each other. When he attacks the line he’s looking outstanding. His defence as well – he’s a physical force. We’re both northerners, he’s loud and we both like to speak a bit. We get on well off the pitch as well, we’re good mates and enjoy relaxing with each other.”
Farrell is equally upbeat about the partnership they are forging during this campaign: “Danny can create something out of nothing. He’s a very sharp player and, if there’s an opportunity, he’s a man that’ll take it. His control has been brilliant over the last three games. That’s where we’ve been going right. We’ve been looking at stuff after training, and after games – we’ve been sitting down together and making sure that everybody’s on the same page.”
Despite the glitches against Ireland, Care says he has the licence to make decisions which put pace on England’s game. “The coaches give me the licence to play on my instincts.  A high tempo game is music to my ears. We want to run teams around. The key thing for us is being ruthless and taking those chances when they come. Against Wales we won’t get hundreds of chances, so the ones we create we must take.”
He believes England are a different animal from the side that disappeared in Cardiff.
“We’ve shown we are a lot more composed, playing in the right areas, leaving some chances out there but creating a lot as well. We have the players to change games.”
In the past it was the Welsh half-backs who would monopolise all the column inches before England-Wales showdowns, but this time in Care and Farrell it is the English lights shining brightest.