Lancaster on the 'second lease of life' that's driven Care to 100 caps

Former England head coach Stuart Lancaster has paid tribute to the special skills that marked Danny Care out as an outstanding academy player and will see him become England’s latest rugby centurion against Ireland at Twickenham.

Care will become only the sixth male England player to win 100 Test caps and achieves this feat at the age of 37 during a scrum-half era in which Ben Youngs amassed 130 caps and current England backs coach Richard Wigglesworth won 33 caps.

It has not been an easy ride for Care, who was told at the very start of his career he wouldn’t make it. Having proved the doubters wrong, he then fell out of favour with England coaches at various times but still maintained the enthusiasm and drive that Lancaster believes will turn him into a brilliant coach of young talent when he finally hangs up his boots.

Lancaster is now the head coach at Racing 92 in Paris after a glittering period with Leinster but his involvement with Care goes back to those early days when he was in charge of the Leeds Academy.

Lancaster paid tribute to Care and told RugbyPass: “Danny, Ben Youngs and Richard Wigglesworth have competed against each other and all have been involved with England and Danny has been the one who has outlasted them all. That is great credit to him.

"You can see that desire to play for Harlequins and England and Danny really stuck in there and has been rewarded with 100 caps. That is testament to his talent, maturity, resilience and personality.

“Having Marcus Smith around has given Danny a second lease of life and with his desire to keep on improving, I think he would make an excellent development coach. He has a media presence but I think he has a lot to give back to the game working with young players.”

Care was on the Sheffield Wednesday football club’s books as a youngster before concentrating on rugby, helping Prince Henry’s Grammar School to Yorkshire Cup victories at U13s and U16s, and the U18s national vase title in 2004, earning him England schools honours.

When Leeds were relegated from the Premiership, Care opted to join Harlequins in 2006 where he has become one of the most popular and successful players at the club, with his livewire style of play fitting perfectly with the Quins playing ethos.

Lancaster said: “Danny’s point of difference when he was in the Leeds Academy was his speed and also speed of action – that ability to have an eye for a gap. He is a very good footballer and a natural sportsman which was to his benefit.

"He was electrifyingly quick and had a brilliant eye for a gap with very good basics. I loved his personality and we never had any problems with him in the Academy and I was very disappointed when he left.

“He was someone that you could say he was going to go all the way. We had a very good group of players and seven or eight of them were excellent and capable of playing in the Premiership and potentially internationally and Danny was in that category.

“Danny had proved very quickly to Yorkshire U16s that he was good enough to be in the Academy where he became a key member of the squad. He made his first team debut at Leeds and was in the squad pushing for selection against Justin Marshall (All Blacks scrum-half) and the team got relegated that year. I took over as first team coach at that point having been in charge of the Academy and wanted Danny to stay.

“However, Danny had an opportunity to go to Harlequins and it took him a while to break through but when he did Martin Johnson selected him for England.”

Lancaster is preparing his Racing 92 team – minus a host of first team players out through injury or in the national squad – for their home game with Toulon on Sunday but will be keeping a close eye on the England game with Ireland for the moment Care brings up the century of caps.

“Harlequins as a club deserve a lot of credit for keeping him in good shape and he has looked at his game and matured,” added Lancaster.

"Danny is very much a 'team first' player and that attitude has kept him going and he really enjoys helping young players.”