The U18 academy report on Danny Care, England’s latest Test centurion

Steve Borthwick has hailed the achievement of Danny Care, the England scrum-half who is set to become his country’s sixth centurion Test player if he gets to play against Ireland.

A starter in the round three Guinness Six Nations loss to Scotland, the Harlequins No9 has been named on the Twickenham bench for Saturday’s visit by the Irish as Alex Mitchell is back to full fitness following his recent knee injury.

The 37-year-old Care was first capped by his country in 2008, but his career stalled in 2018 following a falling out with then-coach Eddie Jones.

Bridges were eventually mended with the Australian in 2022 and the veteran half-back has remained involved under Borthwick, acting as the second-choice scrum-half behind Mitchell at the recent Rugby World Cup and now in the 2024 Six Nations.

Having originally made his club breakthrough at Leeds, Care has been with Harlequins since 2006.

However, England’s fallow week training camp in York last week unearthed a handwritten national academy report on the scrum-half that he was given by Borthwick and co on Thursday morning during a presentation to celebrate his impending 100th Test cap.

“We were up in York last week for an open session and somebody handed to Richard Wigglesworth the academy report from when he [Care] was U18, a genuine national academy, handwritten report,” revealed Borthwick after naming his match day 23 to host the Irish in London.

“This was presented this morning. It talked about needing to work on his defence and needing more time in the gym to get a bit bigger, but it said he was a player who was going to play for England many times.

“He has done so, so well for so many years and is such an incredible influence around this squad now. We’re very fortunate that we have him.”

England skipper Jamie George also chipped in with his Care observations. “There is nothing he hasn’t already said himself. I’m incredibly proud of him as a mate, we are very close. He has had to work very, very hard to get to that milestone.

“He has been in and around this team for a long, long time. He made his professional debut in 2003, which shocked me today – we did a bit of a presentation for him.

"What an incredible guy, what an amazing player, someone who has done incredible things for this English team for a long time now. He deserved this moment and hopefully we can make it a special day for him.”