Danny Care keen to ‘have some fun’ if he wins 100th England cap against Ireland

Danny Care was presented with his national academy report in anticipation of his 100th cap and the England scrum-half jokes that the assessment made two decades ago is still accurate now.

Care will become the sixth England men’s Test centurion if he steps off the bench in Saturday’s Six Nations match against Ireland with his extended family, including his wife Jodie and three children, all present at Twickenham.

When the squad gathered on Thursday to celebrate the occasion, they were read out the 37-year-old’s hand-written Under-18 report that had been obtained by attack coach Richard Wigglesworth.

“Wiggy got handed it at our training camp in York last week and was asked to give it to me. He said ‘there’s no way I’m giving it to him yet. I’m going to have some fun first’,” Care said.

“He did a little bit of a montage of good and bad bits from my career. The report said ‘he lacks a bit of physicality, box-kicking is slightly inconsistent’. I’d say 18 years later it’s still the same!

“The cool line at the end of it was ‘future England player’. There was also ‘he tries a bit too much and makes a few mistakes, but he’ll have a crack’.

“Wigglesworth had a bit of fun with that and it’s come full circle. I’m still quite similar, I’d say.”

Care’s passage to the milestone has been far from plain sailing after being dropped by Eddie Jones in 2018, resulting in four years spent in the international wilderness until his dazzling form for Harlequins forced a recall.

Back in the saddle for the 2022 tour to Australia, he was then hauled off before half-time of the Sydney decider and once again he appeared to have been frozen out.

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But upon Steve Borthwick’s appointment as Jones’ successor in