Care: England must find killer instinct
ENGLAND scrum-half Danny Care insists the team must become more ruthless if they are to turn encouraging performances into titles.
Martin Johnson’s side ended the Six Nations a disappointing third after a gallant 12-10 defeat to Grand Slam-winners France in Paris on Saturday.
Their other defeat, to Ireland, was also by a fine margin and Harlequins No9 Care believes that killer instinct is the main missing ingredient. “We were eight points away from winning the whole tournament,” Care told City PM “Every game you play at that level, it’s the two or three points here and there that you have to take to win the games.
“The margins between winning and losing are so slight you that you have to take every chance you get. I think it’s definitely something to learn from for the future.
“We could have taken a couple more chances against France but to be fair our defence was brilliant – I don’t think they broke our line once. We’ll take those experiences and use them in the future.”
Care finished the tournament with mixed feelings. The 23-year-old cemented his place as first-choice scrum-half by starting every game but was left with a tinge of regret by England’s continued failure to do themselves justice.
“It was great personally to start all the five games. I was pleased with that and how I played, but I was disappointed from a team point of view,” he added.
“I think we showed we should have beaten the team that won the Grand Slam. And that’s the gutting factor – we should have won that last game.
“The rain didn’t help us because before that we were playing some wonderful rugby, throwing the ball around. It’s the way we always wanted to play. We knew we had it in us and it came out in little bursts.
“So it was disappointing not to win that game but there’s a lot of confidence we can take forward for the summer tour [of Australia and New Zealand].”