Care ends rugby career with Harlequins victory

Gallagher Premiership

Harlequins (14) 24

Tries: Murley, Porter, Smith Cons: Smith 3 Pen: Smith

Exeter (12) 22

Danny Care ended his stellar rugby union career with a win as Harlequins edged past Exeter 24-22 in the Premiership.

Care played his 395th and final game for Quins after 19 years at the club – Premiership Rugby giving the 38-year-old special dispensation to wear the number nine shirt from the bench.

The scrum-half, who has won two Premiership titles and earned 101 England caps, came on with 16 minutes to go.

He saw Marcus Smith kick a winning penalty with 10 minutes left as Quins edged past an Exeter side that put in one of their better performances in a disappointing season.

But the lack of a fourth try and a crucial bonus point meant any outside hopes seventh-placed Harlequins might have for fourth place and a spot in the play-offs came to an end.

They can now finish no higher than fifth place while Exeter remain in ninth, where they will end the campaign.

“I owe this club so much,” Care told TNT Sports after the game.

“They’ve stuck by me through thick and thin and it’s been an honour every time to wear the shirt and I’m really excited for the next person who gets the opportunity.

“It’s a special club and I’ll be supporting them all on the way.”

Care joined as a 19-year-old from hometown club Leeds Tykes and went on to help Quins win some of their greatest honours, including a European Challenge Cup title in 2011.

He said he had struggled to control his emotions leading up to the game, especially when he had been at home with his wife Jodie.

“It’s been a really mad week,” he said.

“I felt uncomfortable at there being so much attention.

“I’ll be honest, everyone thinks that I love attention, but I probably feel more comfortable hearing negative things about me than positive.

“But the outpouring of love has been incredible and it makes me realise all over again just how special this game is, the amount of amazing people you get to meet and come across.

Care walked out ahead of the rest of his team-mates with his children for his final appearance at The Stoop, as all sides of the famous ground gave him an emotional standing ovation.

His team-mates needed just 175 seconds to open the scoring as Cadan Murley went over in the left corner thanks to Rodrigo Isgro’s long pass.

Exeter had Tamati Tua sin-binned four a 14th-minute head-on-head clash with Quins skipper Alex Dombrandt as the hosts had 85% of the possession in the first quarter.

They eventually made it tell when starting scrum-half Will Porter – wearing the 21 shirt – darted around the short side of a 21st-minute line-out maul.

But just after the kick-off Exeter responded as full-back Josh Hodge – one of the few bright lights in their disappointing season – broke through the Quins defence and Rus Tuima was on hand to power over from close range despite being a man down.

Seven minutes later the returning Tommy Wyatt got on the end of a line-out maul for his fourth Exeter try of the season, but Henry Slade missed the conversion for the Chiefs, who had new backs coach Dave Walder in attendance for the first time.

Exeter continued to grow and they went ahead three minutes into the second half when Stu Townsend capitalised on a Wyatt break as the struggling Devon side showed some much-needed confidence.

The visitors did well to repel a number of dangerous Quins attacks as the half wore on – a vast improvement in the past few weeks which culminated in a disastrous 79-17 loss last month at Gloucester that cost coaches Rob Hunter and Ali Hepher their jobs.

But Exeter could do nothing to stop the individual brilliance of England’s Smith as the Quins fly-half celebrated his British and Irish Lions call-up with a phenomenal individual try.

With 20 minutes to go he skipped past five tacklers and raced in under the posts as his conversation made it 21-19.

A Slade penalty soon after put Exeter a point ahead before Care came onto the field for one last time to the joy of the home fans.

They saw their side go back in front when Smith kicked a penalty from in front of the posts.

Quins came close to scoring a fourth try when Murley broke through with two minutes left and fed former Chief Tom Lawday, but from the resulting breakdown Wyatt picked up the ball in an offside position.

For a moment it seemed as though Care would try and a kick a penalty to end his career.

Harlequins’ head coach Danny Wilson:

“Danny has had a phenomenal career with close to 400 games. He is a top bloke and a true Quins’ legend and I don’t think his feats will be repeated again.

“It’s been an emotional week for him as injuries have prevented him from training to the intensity he wants so he’s getting out at the right time.

“However today our performance wasn’t clinical enough as we didn’t get the fluidity we had last week.

“They were very physical and frustrated us at the breakdown with handling errors stopping us from getting away from them.

“We are disappointed not to get the bonus point but our play-off chances were already pretty slim so winning was the priority as the game was in the balance.”

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter:

“Today we had the emotion and togetherness to stay in the fight with our discipline much improved.

“In a normal season, it was kind of a par result by competing throughout and coming away from home with a losing bonus point.

“However, ironically how much better could we be if we could routinely catch and pass, for at one stage we didn’t see the ball for 15-20 minutes.

“There may be a few decisions that went against us but I don’t want to dwell on it as good sides don’t worry about that.

Harlequins: T Green; Isgro, Beard, Waghorn, Murley; Smith, Porter; Baxter, Walker, Lamositele, J Green, Hammond, Kenningham, Evans, Dombrandt (capt).

Replacements: Riley, Els, Streeter, Launchbury, Lawday, Care, Kerr, David

Exeter: Hodge; Wyatt, Slade, Tua, Brown-Bampoe; Skinner, Townsend; Blose, Yeandle, Iosefa-Scott, Tuima, Jenkins (capt), Vermeulen, Capstick, Roots.

Replacements: Frost, Keast, Street, Tshiunza, Moloney, Cairns, Haydon-Wood, Lilley.

Yellow card: Tua (14), Wyatt (79)