We’ll take it out on Scotland, vows Care
DANNY CARE has urged his England team-mates to take their frustration out on Scotland next week following Saturday’s agonising defeat to Ireland at Twickenham.
Scrum-half Care described the 20-16 loss as one of the most disappointing of his career after wing Tommy Bowe burst through to score a soft try late on.
Despite the defeat, Martin Johnson’s England stay second in the Six Nations table, just ahead of Ireland on points difference.
And Care insists it’s still all to play for, starting with the trip to Murrayfield to face the winless Scots on 13 March.
“That was probably one of the biggest games of my career so far – at home to Ireland in the Six Nations – and so losing makes it one of the biggest disappointments,” said Care, who was arguably England’s best performer at Twickenham.
“It is just so frustrating. We probably played the best rugby over 80 minutes and to get three points ahead with a few minutes to go, we thought we could hold out.
“We were two from two and would have loved to make it three from three. By no means are we out of the competition yet, and hopefully we will come back for the Scotland game firing.”
Centre Riki Flutey, however, has warned his side they need to tighten up defensively if they are to inflict another defeat on an otherwise resolute Scottish side.
“Ireland took their opportunities in our 22 and that is an area we have to look at in our own game, scanning the defensive line and looking for openings, not ball-watching,” the Brive star added.
“We also need to work on our first-phase defence because giving away easy points is unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, England will today discover the extent of Simon Shaw’s shoulder injury sustained on Saturday.
The giant lock went off in the opening minutes of the defeat and underwent a scan yesterday.
He now looks set for a spell on the sidelines along with full-back Delon Armitage, who suffered rib catilage damage.
Leicester lock Louis Deacon and Northampton full-back Ben Foden have been called in to join the squad at the Pennyhill Park camp this morning, while 10 of the squad who weren’t involved on Saturday have been released to rejoin their clubs.