Quins backing careless Danny
England scrumhalf Danny Care received a vote of confidence from Harlequins chief Conor O’Shea after helping his team return to the top of the Premiership table with a 14-6 win over Bath.
Care was at the centre of more off-the-field controversy on Friday after it emerged he had been questioned and bailed by police in Yorkshire over an allegation of sexual assault, which he strongly denies.
It was the latest in a series of stories in recent months concerning Care, who lost his place in the England Six Nations squad after being arrested for drink driving in December.
Care has also accepted a police caution for being drunk and disorderly on the night relating to the allegation of sexual assault.
However, O’Shea said he had never been tempted to give Care a break from his playing duties following Saturday’s gritty win over Bath.
“I was never going to leave him out,” O’Shea said.
“Danny’s made his mistakes, they are well documented. He’s learning from his mistakes.
“What he has to understand is that he will be an easy target and we are absolutely supporting him in this case.
“There’s plenty of stuff we’ve put around Danny that he’s working on, both from technical scrum-half play to lifestyle. We are absolutely behind him.”
Meanwhile the main talking point following Saturday’s win was an incident involving Harlequins’ Samoan World Cup flank Maurie Fa’asavalu who scored the only try of the match.
Fa’asavalu’s contribution was overshadowed however by his sin-binning for a no-arms tackle on Bath youngster Tom Heathcote, who was left nursing a whiplash injury following the incident.
“I hope the citing officer is looking after it,” Bath Director of Rugby Sir Ian McGeechan said. “He (Heathcote) is 20. We’ve got to look after these boys.”
O’Shea however reserved judgement on the tackle.
“I haven’t seen it in slow motion but he comes in to make a dominant hit, he does try to get his arms out and around but Tom Heathcote is falling,” O’Shea said. “The referee saw what happened and deemed it a yellow card.
“People who know Mo, both from St Helens days and from here, know he’s not a loose cannon going round the pitch. He’s an incredibly physical bloke but he’s not a dangerous player.”
