Danny Care urges England to decide key partnerships
England have only 12 Tests remaining between now and their World Cup opener against Fiji but look no nearer to deciding their best formation behind the scrum, particularly in midfield where the red rose outfit have constantly chopped and changed.
Time is running out, and Care told The Rugby Paper: “It’s a problem with having so many good players who are playing well during the year.
“There’s a plethora of players for Stuart Lancaster and the England coaches to pick from and that’s one of the exciting things about this year. But we need to start putting players into place for the World Cup and see which combinations work.”
Billy Twelvetrees and Kyle Eastmond did little to enhance their claims on the recent tour of New Zealand, while the jury remains out on other contenders such as Luther Burrell, Manu Tuilagi, Henry Trinder, Jonathan Joseph and Anthony Allen.
At half-back, Owen Farrell finds his place under threat from George Ford, Freddie Burns, Danny Cipriani and Stephen Myler, while Care has also been forced to rotate with Ben Youngs, Lee Dickson and the consistent Richard Wigglesworth.
“They all deserved to go on tour,” Care said. “They all wanted to play and there are too many good players to fit into 15 shirts. The strength-in-depth of the squad at the moment is phenomenal – we had 40-odd players in New Zealand and more at home injured.
“It doesn’t change a huge amount for a scrum-half but throughout the Six Nations I played with Owen Farrell and I thought our relationship grew along the way, so hopefully we can keep that going, batten it down and keep building.
“I obviously need to play well for Harlequins to warrant starting in that England shirt for the autumn Tests, but if we can consistently get the same sort of group of players playing together throughout the year, which we did quite a lot last year, we should be able to keep building momentum, learn off each other and get better and better.”
After the heartbreak of missing RWC2011 with a broken toe sustained in a warm-up match against Wales, Care concedes the coming season is the biggest of his life.
At 27, he may not get another opportunity to appear on rugby’s grandest stage and the fact England are playing at home makes the prospect more enticing.
“It is the biggest year of a rugby player’s career,” Care said. “I’ve been involved with England for the last seven years and had four years building up for New Zealand before getting injured, so it’s been another three years now before I potentially get the chance to play in a World Cup and, for me personally, it’s an unbelievably exciting year.
“Obviously I’m dying to play in a World Cup – and to play in a home World Cup is something not many people get to experience in their lives.
“It’ll be absolutely crazy how big it’s going to be; it’s the next big sporting event in England and it’s going to be very special for every player involved.
“It’s an absolutely huge year but we all know it’s still a long way off and that you’ve got to play well for your club, try to stay fit and then hopefully bigger things will come. But my main goal is to be part of this and win the World Cup with England.”
Care was disappointed England failed to leave New Zealand with a win but is convinced the All Blacks‘ aura of invincibility can be broken. He said: “They’ve worn that mantle but having played against them seven or eight times now, they’re unbelievably good but not unbeatable. We know that, having beaten them two autumns ago, and we should have beaten them in June.
“But to do that you need to put in an 80-minute performance, shut them down when they look dangerous and take your opportunities when you get them.
“To beat the best, you have to put points on the board when you have the chances.”
NEALE HARVEY
