{"id":409213,"date":"2026-02-05T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409213\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T12:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T12:00:07","slug":"england-couldnt-be-in-a-better-place-danny-care-on-the-six-nations-rugby-world-cup-and-harlequins-rugby-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/409213\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018England couldn\u2019t be in a better place\u2019: Danny Care on the Six Nations, Rugby World Cup and Harlequins | Rugby union"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you surprised at the complete turnaround in England\u2019s results or did you see this coming? \u201cI\u2019m not at all surprised because I saw the team trending in the right direction. I was involved for the back end of the 2023 World Cup campaign and it was amazing. Then a lot of experienced heads left, but the young lads had learned so much from those boys: Courtney Lawes, Billy Vunipola, Joe Marler, Ben Youngs, Dan Coles. Then in the 2024 Six Nations<\/a> we got that win against Ireland and in Paris I remember standing behind the posts watching a couple of tries, going: \u2018That\u2019s how England should play!\u2019 That\u2019s the blueprint. There was Ben Earl, Marcus Smith, playing quickly, physical direction, carving up the French defence. Even though we lost, I remember thinking: \u2018That was my last ever game for England, annoyingly \u2013 they\u2019re gonna do all right from now and I\u2019m not going to be a part of it.\u2019 But in a way, maybe I played the tiniest part in their transition. The last year has been a joy to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do England need to win the Six Nations to be serious contenders for the Rugby World Cup next year? \u201cThey have to win it just to prove to themselves that they are that good, but not necessarily this year. It\u2019s going to be really tough, but I believe the boys can do it. The last game\u2019s in France: it would be quite special to do it there 10 years on from when we won a grand slam over there. It would be a brilliant feeling for them to realise what it takes. A lot of the lads starting for England at the moment experienced how close we were to reaching the 2023 World Cup final<\/a>, the fine margins, and they\u2019ll be way better players for it come 2027. Obviously I\u2019m biased, but we\u2019re in a nice side of a draw so I\u2019m very hopeful England can go all the way. Eighteen months away from a World Cup, England couldn\u2019t be in a better place.<\/p>\n

Danny Care scores a try for England against Samoa at the World Cup in 2023. Photograph: Andrew Fosker\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Harlequins seem to be going in the opposite direction since you retired last May. How does it feel watching their decline? \u201cIt\u2019s really tough to watch the club I love and really care about. It does hurt. But I was there 19 years so I\u2019ve been in situations like that. Losing the coach on the eve of the season doesn\u2019t help. Danny [Wilson] was great \u2013 you can\u2019t begrudge him leaving when an international team come knocking. We\u2019ll blame Wales because of the timing! You can\u2019t put too much stick on the current coaches; they\u2019re trying their best in a tough situation. Maybe this is a bit of a reset year.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do Quins turn this around? \u201cThey could sort out what they want to do, what route they want to go down: get in the right players, who want to be there for the long term, then bring in a new coach or coaches to take the club forward. It\u2019s not just a short-term fix. Ironically producing England players is one of the problems. It\u2019s such a hard league at the minute. It\u2019s so tight. If you are slightly off it, you\u2019re going to lose. We\u2019re seeing mammoth scorelines this year in the Prem, which is great for attacking rugby, but not good for coaches\u2019 heart rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why do you think blowouts have become more common in the Prem? \u201cI don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s a law thing, a breakdown thing. I can\u2019t put my finger on it. If the other team\u2019s on top, it\u2019s very hard to wrestle momentum back. There\u2019s proper talent in the league so if you\u2019re slightly off it, mentally more than anything, you\u2019re gonna get beat. Teams are gonna score \u2013 and quickly \u2013 and suddenly you\u2019re four or five tries down thinking. Then you try things different to the gameplan and expose yourself, and a team can run a real score on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danny Care applauds the Harlequins fans in May 2025. Photograph: Steven Paston\/PA<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been retired for nine months now. How\u2019s the body and mind after 500 games? \u201cIt\u2019s alright. My knee\u2019s not great. I had surgery at the end of last season and it\u2019s probably going to need a little bit more but I\u2019m putting that off as long as I can. Just watching makes me absolutely certain that I made the right decision. I\u2019m lucky I got to play as long as I could and decide when my exit was, which not many people get to do. I saw a lot of good friends transition out of the game: the good, the bad, the different, I saw it all. So I tried to put things in place that I wanted to do. I started doing punditry when I got injured at the 2011 World Cup and got an amazing buzz, so I did as much as I could while playing. The media is something I\u2019ve always enjoyed. I\u2019ve opened a few doors there.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019re also coaching at a school this season? \u201cThat\u2019s been brilliant, so rewarding. I\u2019m trying to give a little bit back. Selfishly, it gives me my fix of being on the pitch and I help kids see things, encourage them to back themselves, have a go and be brave. We\u2019re trying to make them realise how good they are. We\u2019re on a bit of a cup run with the first team \u2013 one win away from playing at Twickenham \u2013 which I did with my school 21 years ago. There\u2019s something a bit cathartic in that. I say to the boys, that was one of my favourite ever rugby experiences \u2013 doing something incredibly special with your best mates. You\u2019ll probably never have as much fun in rugby as you will now.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019re spending a few days in Singapore as an HSBC ambassador. How different is it to when you were on the sevens circuit 20 years ago? \u201cSevens is something I hold dear to my heart. I loved my time on the tour. It\u2019s still brilliant to be around. It\u2019s such a fun atmosphere. Everyone\u2019s got smiles on faces. HSBC\u2019s slogan is \u201cLet\u2019s SVNS this city\u201d so we\u2019ve been getting into the community and done loads of coaching. There\u2019s a real appetite for rugby over here, which is really cool. It\u2019s my first time here \u2013 Singapore wasn\u2019t on the sevens circuit when I started \u2013 and it\u2019s been amazing. We went to the museum to learn about the culture and traditions, and we\u2019ve been up high to look over the city, and been on mopeds with little sidecars going around to view the old stuff. It blows my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Care won the Six Nations three times with England. Photograph: Patrick Khachfe\/Rex\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Great Britain\u2019s young teams are bottom of the men\u2019s and women\u2019s SVNS leagues this season. The sevens coach Mike Friday says the RFU is missing a trick by abandoning the England sevens programme, given nearly all professional players played it at school. What do you think? \u201cI\u2019m definitely with Mike on that. It\u2019s sad to see what\u2019s happened with the English sevens game. It doesn\u2019t make sense. I know what it did for my career, confidence, skills and ability to play in high-pressure environments. It was a rite of passage to see if you could hack it in these big arenas, with the absolute scrutiny of seven-a-side rugby in seven minutes. It puts you under a strain that you can\u2019t really get in 15s. Make one mistake, it could cost you the game, or you do one brilliant thing, you could win the game. So I\u2019ll always be a massive advocate that people should play sevens. I don\u2019t see the downside. I appreciate it comes with an awful lot of cost to send these players around the world, but Australia and New Zealand have the correct funding to run a whole programme. I would challenge anyone that says there isn\u2019t a place for it in rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n

You burst on to the scene as top try scorer in the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games in Australia. Is it true you had never played sevens before? \u201cThat is true. I went to Prince Henry School in Otley, which was a good rugby state school, but we didn\u2019t enter any of the sevens tournaments. I\u2019d never played sevens in my life. A lot of it was down to Brian Ashton setting up the National Academy. We were a group of young lads: Danny Cipriani, Ryan Lamb, Anthony Allen, lots of good young talent. They sent us out there to see what we could do and it was the best few weeks ever. We got to mix with all these other athletes in the Commonwealth Games village: Jessica Ennis was there! Unfortunately a dodgy touchline call robbed us of a gold medal, but to come back with a silver after never playing Sevens before was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danny Care is a big advocate for rugby sevens. Photograph: HSBC<\/p>\n

A lot of elite women are switching codes in blocks like franchise cricketers. Antoine Dupont did it with the Olympics but is that another missed opportunity for men\u2019s rugby as a whole? \u201cI would absolutely be an advocate for that. If the best player in the men\u2019s game wants to do it and get an Olympic gold, that says to everybody, it should be a thing they\u2019re allowed to do. We had Ben Youngs, David Strettle, Matthew Tait, Tom Varndell. Think how good a team England could put out now: frightening. I understand 15s will always take priority, but I can\u2019t see any harm in putting a team together that would compete with everyone. What a buzz it would bring to see someone like Henry Pollock playing in HSBC SVNS. But I can\u2019t see it happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, would your mate Joe Marler have been the worst ever sevens player or would he be able to cause some damage? \u201cBack in the day Joe was as quick as any forward. He was rapid and he had unbelievable skills. In his last year or so, he would have struggled, but Marler in his prime would have made a formidable sevens player. He\u2019d be very hard to tackle. And he would have just wound everyone up, which would have been funny as well. Last week we managed to wangle a trip to Spain with our wives. It was hilarious. The boy did well in Traitors. We were proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow No Helmets Required on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Are you surprised at the complete turnaround in England\u2019s results or did you see this coming? \u201cI\u2019m not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-409213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}