Care hopeful form with Harlequins will earn Test recall

Danny Care is desperate to reclaim the England scrum-half berth for Saturday's RBS Six Nations opener against Wales at Twickenham.

The Leeds Academy product endured a frustrating autumn campaign, losingthe No 9 jersey to Paul Hodgson after an unconvincing performance against Australia. England manager Martin Johnson will name the side to play Wales today and Care believes he has built a strong case for selection.

"I started one game in the autumn and was on the bench for two, which was pretty frustrating," he said.

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"Every time you go to an England game you want to be starting. You want to be up there singing the national anthem and then start playing straight away.

"I'm happy with my form at the moment. Results haven't been going for us (at Harlequins) recently but I'm happy with how I'm playing and if I'm selected I can carry that into the Six Nations.

"You have to play well every game and perform week-in, week out to get in the squad because whoever's playing the best should play and hopefully that will be me."

Care was not helped in the autumn by England's highly conservative game plan which restricted his natural instinct to run at defence and inject momentum into the team.

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He has been extremely diplomatic on the subject in the months since but the England coaches have acknowledged they were "over-prescriptive".

England were beaten 18-9 by Australia and went down 19-6 to New Zealand, either side of an uninspiring 16-9 win over Argentina. They scored just one try in three Tests.

England's attacking options have been boosted for the Six Nations by the return from injury of Riki Flutey, Delon Armitage and Toby Flood, plus the selection of former New Zealand rugby league international Shontayne Hape.

Care felt the widespread criticism levelled at the team through the autumn was unjust and he is confident England are not far away from being one of the best in the world.

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Wales hope to discover today whether or not banned full-back Lee Byrne can face England.

The outcome of Byrne's appeal to a European Rugby Cup independent panel could impact on Welsh victory hopes at Twickenham.

ERC have not yet confirmed the appeal date, and Wales are currently training with two different line-ups – one that includes Ospreys full-back Byrne, and one that does not.

Byrne was punished after admitting a misconduct charge following his brief illegal appearance as a 16th player during the Ospreys' Heineken Cup victory over Leicester 10 days ago. Ospreys, meanwhile, were fined E25,000.

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Wales head coach Warren Gatland has delayed his team announcement for England – he had planned to make it on Sunday – pending the result of Byrne's appeal.

If Byrne remains suspended for two weeks, then James Hook looks set to retain the No 15 shirt.