Danny Kare, 36, could be called up to the England squad for this World Cup after Jack van Poortvliet is injured. Credit: Getty Images/Shaun Botterill
Serious injuries sustained by England midfielders in Rugby World Cup warm-up matches are unfortunately not news.
As Jack van Puortleet writhed in pain on the Twickenham turf clutching his left ankle last Saturday, perhaps already aware that his dream of playing for his country on the biggest stage was now over, what should Danny Kare be thinking while sitting on in the stands?
Kare felt bitter despair that his chance to play in the Rugby World Cup was taken away from him at the last moment, 12 years ago.
A post-game scan following England's match against Wales in Cardiff showed that Car had a broken plate in his foot, ruling him out of the 2011 tournament in New Zealand. So if Van Purtvliet was looking for someone to give him some insight in the dressing room on a Saturday night when his emotions were all over the place, he didn't have to look far.
Van Purtvliet will miss the England World Cup campaign. Photo: Getty Images/David Rogers
The fact that Kare, at the age of 36, was in the dressing room as a teammate to console Van Purtvliet is simply unbelievable. In some way. This is not a comment about the Care form; he absolutely deserves to be in the French team. It's unbelievable because England are heading to France with two scrum half-backs, Caer and Ben Youngs, who would have been selected 12 years ago if not for Caer's untimely leg injury.
Third member of this hypothetical 2011 group of the year would be Richard Wigglesworth, who, of course, is now England's attacking coach. Care's place was eventually taken by the unrestricted Joe Simpson, who retired last December.
Youngs, now 33, and Care were definitely young enough back in 2011 that it technically could have happened, but the odds weren't likely. Injuries, loss of form and new talents of opponents have to develop over such a long period of time.
Take some scrum half-backs the same age as Youngs (then 22) and Kare (24) who went to that World Cup in New Zealand. Only Conor Murray is still active with Ireland, and notably not as a first-choice scrum midfielder behind Jamison Gibson-Park. Morgan Parra (France) retired, Will Genia (Australia) retired from internationals, and Nick Phipps (Australia), Fumiaki Tanaka (Japan), Edoardo Gori (Italy), François Hougaard (South Africa), Tavis Noyle and Lloyd Williams (both Wales) are in the international wilderness.
Thus, England is an anomaly. Van Purtvliet started nine of England's last 10 Tests and his selection in what seemed closer to a first-choice side against Wales last Saturday was perhaps Steve Borthwick's sign that Van Purtvliet was his preferred choice to start in France. Van Poortvliet has succeeded where many other scrum-halfs have failed under Eddie Jones and Stuart Lancaster before him.
Testing for England begins in the semi-final of the scrum after Ben Young's debut
Has the state of English scrum talent been too bad over the last decade or so, or has Youngs (and to some extent Kare) just played too well? Van Poortvliet's rise, despite only making his Test debut on that Australian tour in 2022, highlights how quickly he beat Jones (and later Borthwick). He convinced them that he was worthy of a series of consecutive starts, which is more than Dan Robson, Alex Mitchell, Harry Randall and Raffi Quirk have been able to do in recent years, despite promising moments when they were given a chance. Jones' decision to include Willy Heinz in the 2019 squad speaks volumes about how he assessed England's talent outside of Young.
The number of minutes in the scrimmage for England since Ben Youngs' Test debut
Or, playing a lawyer Hell, Van Purtvliet just benefited from Young's absence from Australia in 2022 for family reasons, followed by Borthwick's decision to drop Young from his squad for the 2023 Six Nations?
Anyway, the scrimmage half situation in England have been unusual for some time, with a bottleneck created at the top, and Youngs is seeing all rivals off until early this year.
Mitchell, the beneficiary of Van Poortvliet's misfortune, will see some action in France at some point. With his form, there is a strong argument that he should have been on the team originally.
But now the Youngs and Kare duo, with a combined age of 70 by the time England face Argentina in their opening World Cup games seem to be used again. As before.
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