Early Career
Danny Care first played rugby union as a 6 year old with his local club in Leeds, West Park Bramhope RUFC (now called West Park Leeds RUFC), although his first love was football. At the age of 11 he was invited to join the Academy at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club which meant giving up club rugby although he was able to continue playing the game at Prince Henry's Grammar School in Otley.
He helped Prince Henry's win the Yorkshire Cup for Under-13's in 2000 but he missed almost all of the next season recovering from a broken leg sustained in a school game.
The following season he was forced to choose between football and rugby union and he asked Sheffield Wednesday to release him from his Academy contract so that he could concentrate on rugby and by the end of the season he had been selected for Yorkshire Schools Under-15's. This was his first taste of representative rugby which included a man-of-the-match performance in the Roses game against Lancashire at Pontefract. In May 2002 he was part of the West Yorkshire team that won the inaugural Under-15 National 10-a-side Festival with the final being played in the Commonwealth Games stadium in Manchester.
Further honours followed next season with selection for Yorkshire and the North of England before making his debut for England Schools Under-16's against Wales at Neath in April 2003. By now Care had resumed club rugby with Otley RUFC and the season also brought another Yorkshire Cup success at Under-16's with Prince Henry's.
Care's progress led to an invitation to join the Leeds Tykes Academy at the start of the 2003–04 season – a season which ended with Tykes winning the National Colts Cup for Under-19's and Care being named as Tykes' Players' Young Player of the Year. At school level Care spent the season playing at fly-half and helped Prince Henry's to success in the Yorkshire Cup for Under-18's as well as a famous victory at Twickenham in the final of the Daily Mail Under-18 Vase where he scored 13 points in an 18–11 win against St Columba's College from St Albans. The season finished with selection for the England Clubs Under-18's squad for the Four Nations Tournament held in Belfast where he played against Ireland, Scotland and Wales. He also received a late call up to the replacements' bench for England Under-19's against Ireland although he was not used.
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