Sheffield Wednesday's loss was England rugby's gain - Danny Care's dad recalls decision that shaped his son's career

“To see your child’s dreams being crushed like that was not easy,” Alan recalls to The Yorkshire Post.

“He was very quiet that drive home. We’d usually be chatting about the game, the sessions etc; that night was just silent.

“It had been his call. We’d asked them to terminate his contract. Like they had with Jamie Vardy, Wednesday told him he wasn’t big enough for professional football. He’d barely played at the start of that season and just said to me: ‘Dad, I just want to play football.’”

Danny Care, 14 at the time, did carry on playing football, but only with his mates. For Sheffield Wednesday’s loss famously turned out to be English rugby union’s gain.

Having played rugby as a junior for West Park Bramhope and Prince Henry’s Grammar School in Otley, he shifted his focus back to the XVs game.

“He had a teacher at Prince Henry’s called Pete Latham,” continues Alan, “who was just trying to identify the good athletes and put a rugby ball in their hands. That’s what he did with Danny.

“There were times back then we’d talk to Danny and say what was that all about in the scrum, what was going on there? ‘No idea,’ he’d say. He didn’t know the laws or why he would be penalised.

“All he’d do was pick the ball up, run with it, pass it or kick it.”

Danny Care would end up picking up a ball and running with it more than all but five players in the history of the England men’s team, from his first cap in June 2008 right up to his 101st and final appearance in Lyon against France in the Six Nations earlier this month.

In all he represented England at nine different levels: Under-16s, 18s, 19s, 20s, 21, England Saxons, Sevens at the Commonwealth Games, at non-Test cap level and the senior team. “I don’t think he’s had enough credit for that,” says proud Dad Alan of that statistic.

Leeds-born Danny, now 37, announced his retirement from international rugby on Monday night.

He posted on Instagram: “To play for England once was a dream come true. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d get the opportunity to do it over 100 times.

“After a lot of reflection the past few months, the time feels right for myself and the team, to retire from international rugby.

“The past 12 months in this England team have been arguably my favourite, making memories that my family and I will cherish and remember forever.”

Like his son – who will continue playing for Harlequins – Alan never looked beyond one game at a time, cherishing that first cap in New Zealand as if it might be as good as it ever got.

“You always knew that injuries could play a part,” says Alan.

“I remember being at Sixways in Worcester for an England Under-18s game, they had a meeting for all the parents. Pat Sanderson who was with the RPA said ‘you’re only one tackle away from oblivion’ and I’ve always remembered that.

“So it was nice to get the one cap under his belt.”

That Danny managed another hundred is a testament to managing his health and falling back on the resilience he first showed when Sheffield Wednesday forced him out of football.

Eddie Jones famously turned his back on Care in 2018, forcing him into a near four-year international exile.

But as Alan remembers, it was his son who swallowed his pride first.

“He could have quit international rugby there and then,” his Dad remembers. “When it happened it took us a bit by surprise, but Eddie has that reputation, a bit like Jose Mourinho, my way or the highway.

“I just thought it would be a slap on the wrist and his club form would get him back in.

“At the end of the day it was Danny who held the olive branch out for Eddie and said ‘can we meet for a coffee?’ It was at that meeting that he said ‘I think I can still do a job for you’.”

It earned him another 17 caps, another trip to a World Cup where he made six appearances and a 100th cap in the epic win over Ireland when he got the chance to be lauded at Twickenham for the landmark.

Danny said on announcing his retirement: “I want to thank all the England fans from the bottom of my heart who have supported me and the team unconditionally throughout the years, all over the world.

“It means the world and nothing will ever beat the feeling of walking out to all of you at Twickenham.”

Alan has one last story. “We bumped into his old Harlequins coach Conor O’Shea at the last World Cup. I’d always felt Danny prospered because he was always good at playing to instruction, to the game plan, and I said that to Conor.

“He just said: “Not for me. The number of times for ‘Quins he’d go off script and just play by instinct.”