Ex-England scrum-half Danny Care will once again be providing his insight and analysis for TNT Sports throughout the 2025 Quilter Nations Series. After spending time inside the England camp this week, here is his first column on what he learned about Steve Borthwick’s group. Watch every QNS game – including England v Australia this Saturday – live on TNT Sports and discovery+
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What I learned from a day in England’s camp
I was in England’s camp on Thursday. I got invited down by Steve Borthwick to go and spend the afternoon with them and watch the boys train. I don’t want to speak too soon, and I don’t want to curse them, but they looked very good. The quality of the squad looked incredible.
I was looking at the team that wasn’t playing – the team that was there to prepare the 23 for the weekend – and it was frightening how good that squad was. When you consider the likes of Marcus Smith, Ollie Lawrence, Henry Slade, Max Ojomoh, Caden Murley, Henry Arundell, Noah Caluori, Jack Kenningham, Theo Dan, Asher Opoku-Fordjour – these incredible players that are playing so well in the Gallagher PREM that aren’t in this 23 that were preparing the team for the weekend, and I thought you could pick two teams. That team, I think, could go out and play Australia and possibly win the game this weekend. I was blown away really by the quality of squad. That was the thing that struck me the most.
With the 23 selected for Saturday, it’s an interesting team. They’ve stacked the bench, six British & Irish Lions on there, which is amazing. Maybe that’s a bit of a nod to, firstly I think, how well the lads performed in Argentina in the summer; a lot of those boys have managed to stay in the team and keep their places, and the Lions lads on the bench can come on and cause some absolute chaos when they get on there. I really like the look of the team. I feel sorry for a few lads who haven’t made it, but I do think the team will change over the next four games; I don’t think this team will stay the same for four weeks.
Blackett wants fly-halves to use super-strengths
Fly-half is probably the toughest decision Steve has to make. Probably the back-rowers, the 10s and the wingers is where England are absolutely stacked at the minute. It just so happens in the fly-half department that you’ve got three genuinely world-class fly-halves in George Ford, Fin Smith and Marcus Smith that anyone would give their left arm to have in their squad. Two of them every week are going to be disappointed, one of them is going to be really disappointed because he won’t make the 23. I think it just happens that Marcus is the lad that misses out this time.
I go back to Argentina in the summer and George having that shirt, playing so well; he played so well last year for Sale in the PREM. He’s started this year really well in the PREM. He’s been really consistent. He drove the team around really well in the summer. He doesn’t not deserve to keep the shirt for a couple more games.
It was interesting speaking to attack coach Lee Blackett; he says he doesn’t want Marcus to try and play like George, he doesn’t want George to play like Marcus, he doesn’t want Fin to play like either of them. He wants them to play like they play, and bring their super-strengths, which I really liked to hear, because I’ve been in environments before where they say ‘oh no, you need to fit this mould to play in this team’. Whereas Lee was saying ‘I want them to be themselves and bring their own super-strengths to the framework that we’re putting in.’
So I think you’re going to see all three of them over the next four weeks. Hopefully they get equal sort of game time to show what they can do. Knowing the competitors that all three of them are, they want to play every week, they don’t want to give the others a chance to show what they can do. Which is great for competition, great for the squad, just an absolute headache, I reckon, every week for the coaches.
Ford or the Smiths? Care shares chat with Blackett over England fly-half dilemma
Video credit: TNT Sports
I spoke to Caluori last year at school – now look where he is
I’d like to see Noah Caluori get an opportunity maybe in these four games. He’s raw, he’s young. He’s had an unbelievable start to his PREM career. An incredible human, I chatted to him on Thursday. Funnily enough, when I was with the Barbarians last summer, we went and trained at his school, and he came over and he was chatting to a few of the lads, and he was saying ‘I’m in the Saracens Academy, hopeful to try and get a couple of games next year’. And then we were laughing on Thursday saying ‘well, you’re here in the England squad’. And he was training as if he’s meant to be there.
He possesses an ability to get in the air above anyone I’ve probably ever seen in an England shirt. Almost like Israel Folau when he gets up in the air that high and he commands that air space. So he’s got a frighteningly good future ahead of him, and I think the coaches will be aware they don’t want to throw him in straightaway to maybe fail. I think they’ll keep him under wraps for a bit longer, to give him some proper training time to make sure he’s really ready for that step up.
Freeman long-term future at 13?
You don’t win a World Cup or a Six Nations or a series with individuals, you win it with a team, with a squad. I think they’ve got to find out who their best 31 are for the World Cup in a couple of years’ time. When you strip it back, there’s not an awful lot of games between now and the World Cup, which seems crazy.
Playing Tommy Freeman at 13 is a bit of a statement. And I know for a fact Tommy wants to play there. I think he said to the coaches ‘give me a go at 13, I’d love to have a try at that and I like to think that’s maybe my long-term future, playing one further in’. Watching him in training, watching him in the PREM this week, he has been exceptional in every single facet of the game.
Also I think it’s a nod to Tom Roebuck, who’s played incredibly well on the right wing for Sale Sharks, that they’ve kept him. England use attacking kicks incredibly well; Ford is probably the master of them. Combinations scream through the whole team – Ford and Roebuck, Fraser Dingwall and Freeman playing 12 and 13 I think is key. Especially in this first game, to try and get off to a good start, you always want to start well in this campaign. It’s obviously the toughest game because it’s the first game of England’s season and it’s one of the last ones of Australia’s and they’ve been together for a long time, so you’re battling with that as well.
Like the Ashes, there is always sledging
I think there’s always spice in England v Australia. The England cricket and rugby lads are quite tight; there are a lot of good friendships there. So I’m sure there will be a lot of messages from the cricket boys wishing the rugby boys luck to try and get the first blow. England v Australia is always a feisty, spicy affair. It always is.
I played against Australia numerous times, and every time there’s niggle, there’s sledging, there’s everything you can imagine that you know you see in England v Australia cricket, in the Ashes, that you definitely get in the rugby as well, so it would be great for the England boys to get one up and start it well.
