Six Nations: England v Italy - ‘Sympathetic’ Danny Care wants England to throw the ball about

A week on from that dismal 11-6 loss against Scotland, there is no doubt that England should get back to winning ways when they return to Twickenham to face 80-1 underdogs Italy.

However, that alone will not be enough for the defending champions; given the paucity of their attacking play against the Scots –who won at Twickenham for the first time since 1983 – the English public will demand a victory with no little panache and style.

England’s backline almost had nothing to do a week ago as what little possession Eddie Jones’ side had was frittered away with futile kicking, something which should be remedied with George Ford’s return at No10, Owen Farrell moving to centre in place of the unfortunate Ollie Lawrence.

Leeds-born Care, who won the last of his 84 caps in 2018, told The Yorkshire Post: “It is tough as England were so good last year. But they didn’t have to play incredible rugby to win the Six Nations and Autumn Nations Cup.

“I think that is just the way rugby was last year; it was very much a defence and kick-focused game. England just happened to be the best at it. I feel sorry for them in a way as they didn’t need to show anything different. But obviously teams have now kind of worked that out and realised that if you match England physically then you are going to have chances as they are not chancing their arm a lot or throwing the ball around.

“Scotland played the perfect game. All credit to them; they deserved to win. But any time you play for England you are expected to beat Scotland. You can, then, understand the criticism.

“I just hope – and would love to see – us throw the ball around more and adjust the mentality to run first rather than kick first. As teams have slowly started to work out how to combat what they did last year, hopefully England can now find different ways to win.

“And this weekend, if England do get back to it, you never know what could happen; they lost the first game of the Championship last year and still won the title.

“You wouldn’t write them off doing that again – and every Englishman wants to see them be a bit more adventurous.”

Jones has had to defend captain Farrell in the build-up to today’s game with pressure for the British Lions fly-half to be dropped after his disappointing display last week.

But Harlequins star Care, who played so much of his Test career alongside the Wiganer, laughs that off.

The former Leeds Tykes player said: “Sport is so fickle isn’t it? It’s just over a year ago that he nearly lifted the World Cup for England and people were saying he is the best player in the world.

“Every team can have a bad game. It wasn’t just Owen who didn’t play well. It was the whole team and they were beaten by the better team so no. To me Owen is still one of the very best players in the world and I am sure he will show it on Saturday.”

As well as switching Farrell to inside centre, Jones has augmented his pack with props Kyle Sinckler and Mako Vunipola back from suspension and injury respectively, while the return of Courtney Lawes at blindside flanker brings extra physicality there. Italy are somehow hoping to avoid a 28th successive Six Nations defeat but Care knows only too well how awkward they can be.

He played in 2017 when – with Care’s former Quins chief Conor O’Shea in charge – they arrived at HQ and famously refused to commit any players after a tackle, thereby preventing any rucks from forming.

Baffled England literally did not know what to do before eventually sorting themselves to win 36-15. Care recalled: “I will never forgive Conor for that!

“It was my first start in about a year and then they do that and made the game an absolute farce.

“I gave Conor a load of stick for what he did to me. It was mad. We’d talked about that rule before – just not about a team doing it every single ruck. It did take us by surprise. But we eventually dealt with it. And I managed to score to shut Conor up!”

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