The Harlequins man has enjoyed a long, successful career in rugby
Who is Danny Care: Ten things you should know about the England scrum-half
Danny Care is a Harlequins legend and among England’s most-capped men’s players.
The skilful, high-tempo scrum-half has won some of rugby’s biggest trophies and is a growing presence in the sport’s media too.
Ten things you should know about Danny Care
1. Daniel Stuart Care was born on 2 January 1987 in Leeds. He preferred football for much of his childhood and joined Sheffield Wednesday’s academy aged 11.
However, he left the football club at 15 and returned to rugby and his local side Otley, where he rekindled his love for the sport.
2. Following appearances at U16 level with Yorkshire Schoolboys, North of England and England, Care joined the Leeds Tykes academy ahead of the 2003-04 season and made his senior debut in 2004.
Care makes a carry during his Leeds days (Getty Images)
3. He signed for newly-promoted Harlequins in 2006, staying in the Premiership following Leeds’ relegation that year.
4. Care won silver with England in rugby sevens at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, featuring in a squad including future XVs team-mates Mathew Tait and Tom Varndell.
5. He earned his first England cap in June 2008 in a 37-20 defeat by New Zealand in Auckland. He scored his first try for his country a week later against the All Blacks in Christchurch.
6. Care was pivotal to some of the greatest moments in recent Quins and England history. He helped his club win their first Premiership title in 2012, starring in the final victory over Leicester Tigers.
The previous year, he set up Gonzalo Camacho’s European Challenge Cup-winning try with a deft kick.
Care was also pivotal to England ending their 13-year Six Nations Grand Slam drought in 2016, as he scored a superb solo try in England’s final match against France.
7. Care amassed 84 England caps (the second-most by a scrum-half) between 2008 and 2018, but started in only 38 of those.
Rarely able to cement himself as his country’s leading number nine, he played only one Rugby World Cup match – a 2015 dead rubber against Uruguay – in that period. He was also a high-profile omission from Lions squads in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021.
8. An increasingly prominent voice in the rugby media, Care co-hosts the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast and occasionally works as a pundit for BT Sport and BBC Radio 5 Live.
9. He won his second Premiership title in 2021, as Harlequins came back from 28-0 down to beat Bristol Bears in their semi-final, before edging Exeter Chiefs 40-38 in an epic final at Twickenham.
10. After another strong season for Harlequins, Care was named in England’s squad for the 2022 summer tour of Australia. He had not played since England gave a poor first-half display against Japan in November 2018.
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