Former England and Leeds Tykes star Danny Care on World Cup disappointment, Stuart Lancaster and Eddie Jones

It still seems absurd that the livewire scrum-half won 84 Test caps for his country yet somehow only ever played in one World Cup fixture.

There are various reasons: in 2011, a broken toe suffered just weeks before the tournament, ruled out the talented Yorkshireman when he would have been a shoo-in for Martin Johnson.

Two years ago, having again been a regular in Eddie Jones’s squad, gutted Care quite suddenly found himself out of the coach’s plans entirely as the tournament loomed into view.

He has not represented England since. In between, in 2015, Care did manage to make the squad yet only played that solitary game.

Even then, it was a dead rubber against Uruguay after England had spectacularly become the first host nation to fail to navigate the group stages.

Lancaster, of course, was in charge and was someone Harlequins star Care knew well, having been nurtured by him in the Leeds Tykes Academy.

“I’m one from one; I can always say I’ve a 100 per cent World Cup win record!” he joked, in an exclusive interview with The Yorkshire Post ahead of today’s England game against Italy.

“And I know I am incredibly lucky to have played 84 times.

“But it is one of my big disappointments. Probably what hurt the most about not being included in 2019 was that would have been my proper crack at it.

“One was taken away by injury and our old mate Stuart just didn’t want to pick me. It’d have been nice to get that 2019 one and had a real crack at it as it was a brilliant team and especially as I’d done all the build-up just to then miss the main event.

“That was tough to take. But it’s sport. You should never expect to be in a squad.”

That was 2019. But what about 2011 and how is the relationship with Lancaster now?

“I think we’re all right you know,” explained the 34-year-old, who last month signed a new deal with Harlequins where he has been ever since leaving home-town Leeds in 2006.

“Obviously, we had a really good relationship. Well, actually, firstly, I’ve still got the letter he sent me to tell me I wasn’t good enough to even come and train with the EDPC squad with Leeds Tykes when I was about 15 or 16.

“If you don’t get in that it’s like you should give up rugby. And I didn’t get in that! I thought ‘sod you, Lanny!’ I think I probably had a few football tendencies and he probably didn’t like that.

“My dad made me keep the letter, though, and I’ve reminded Lanny about that a few times.

“He obviously got the England job and we had a bit of a rocky time before he kind of came good again. But then the 2015 World Cup was tough. I felt like I should be playing and, for whatever reason, the coaches felt I was third choice (behind Ben Youngs and Richard Wigglesworth).

“That meant obviously the World Cup was over for me before I’d even touched a ball.

“It was a bit rocky again at that point but then I actually saw him in Dubai. Me, my wife and family were over there and we saw him and (wife) Nina. It was really random. You got in a boat to go across to this restaurant and I could see it was him coming! I was petrified of Stuart from the age of 14 and you know when it’s him. I said: ‘I know that’s Lanny!’

“But we actually had a really good chat, my family and him and Nina, and I do think we did probably settle our differences. Because I did have a few things that I’d probably never had chance to say to him about it all. We had a heart to heart about that. There’s absolutely no hard feelings from me about it any more.

“I’m so glad for him that he’s gone and shown everyone what a brilliant coach he is.

“Obviously things didn’t go to plan as England head coach at that World Cup (Lancaster was sacked afterwards) but he’s done amazing things at Leinster and shown just what a great coach he is. I don’t think it will be the end of him in an international coaching environment and everything he’s gone through will make him an even better coach when he gets the chance to do it again. If he wants to do it again.”

The initial ‘rocky’ spell was when Care was dropped by Lancaster in 2012, having been arrested three times for alcohol-related incidents in four months.

His glittering career – he helped Quins become champions for the first time later that year and won a grand slam in 2016 – could have gone in an entirely different direction.

However, fatherhood helped turn things around and, on those alcohol issues, Care said: “That was my own doing. I was young. Everyone makes mistakes. I just managed to make a few in a row.

“With the sport getting bigger and rugby getting more well-known, I was probably doing things you couldn’t get away with and shouldn’t get away with.

“It was a massive learning curve for me but again something I wouldn’t take back as it definitely helped me in my personal life and in my career.”

Care, who famously played alongside future England striker Jamie Vardy for Sheffield Wednesday Under-15s before concentrating on rugby, broke into the Leeds team in 2004.

He was not long out of Prince Henry’s Grammar School and had been playing for Otley before being invited to Tykes Academy.

Care made his Leeds debut as a 17-year-old at Valladolid in the European Challenge Shield.

“I was picked to play fly-half, scored a try, kicked a few goals and then broke my leg all within the first 23 minutes,” he recalled.

“I always remember that night in Spain. Back in the day, it was pretty loose and afterwards both teams went to this little underground restaurant.

“There was a load of drinks flowing and I’m there on crutches, bandaged up. After a couple of hours I needed to go the toilet but someone had nicked my crutches, I looked up and Terry Crystal, our legendary doc’, was using it as a microphone stood on the table! We had some great times. And it was the following year I played more.”

Care got to work with legendary All Blacks No 9 Justin Marshall and said: “It was my first year out of school and we had Justin and Mark McMillan. To learn off both was amazing, especially Justin who was one of my heroes growing up. I just made sure I watched everything he did all year: how he manipulated defenders, how he backed himself, how he talked to the team. I loved the way he ran with the ball.”

However, Leeds were relegated at the end of that season and, like fellow Academy product David Doherty, he moved on.

“We didn’t think we could leave but one of the lads’ agents found we’d got a relegation clause in our contract,” recalled Care.

“There were about four of us young ones on the same sort of deal. The story goes that someone had printed off the back page of Justin Marshall’s contract which had a relegation release clause in but they’d left the clause in on ours, too.

“The club was fuming. It was a bit of an admin’ error.

“I didn’t want to leave. It was a huge decision being a Leeds lad and I was a bit of a mummy’s boy, too, still living at home.

“But then I’d seen so many of the lads had gone and I’d got a taste of the Premiership.

“Northampton, Sarries and Quins came in. I met them all. Sarries offered most money – Eddie Jones was there then – but Quins sold me the dream. And I’m still here 15 years later.”

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