Six Nations 2018: Danny Care 'gutted' for friend Ben Youngs as England scrum-half faces championship-ending injury

Danny Care admitted that he is “gutted” at the prospect of England teammate Ben Youngs facing a potential Six Nations-ending injury even though it will see him reinstated as the first-choice No 9 when they take on Wales this Saturday.

England’s impressive 46-15 championship-opening victory over Italy came with a large downer after Youngs was carted off the field with fewer than 10 minutes on the clock, having suffered a potentially serious knee ligament injury.

Youngs underwent a scan today, but the outlook is bleak given the severity of the injury and the way that Youngs went down screaming in pain after being tackled at the base of a ruck. Eddie Jones all but ruled Youngs out of their second match of the championship against Wales, but the likelihood is that the Leicester Tigers scrum-half will not play again this championship – and potentially this season.

“You never want to see a bad injury like that and I was gutted to see Ben in so much pain,” Care said after coming off the bench to play 71 minutes at the Stadio Olimpico. “First thing is first, he's a good mate as well as a competitor for the shirt. He's in pain and all our thoughts are with him. Hopefully, the scan will bring as good as news as we can hope and all the boys are thinking of him. He was in the changing room after the game and was still in good spirits, we're just hoping it will be good news.

“It would be great to get into the number nine shirt for the Wales game having had 70 minutes under my belt, which is great because I love being out there with the boys. Hopefully we can hit the ground running from where we left off against Italy.”

England ran in seven tries in Rome, with Care somewhat surprisingly not getting himself on the scoresheet having scored five tries in nine appearances since last year’s win over the Italians. But it was the overall performance of the team that pleased Care the most, with England pulling clear in the final quarter after building a solid advantage with three first-half tries.

“It was earlier that I expected to come on – I don’t normally play in the first half – and that was nice,” he added. “We started really well with two tries from first phase moves and then Italy came back us in the middle part of the match. They were great - they kept hold of the ball and caused us problems. It shows they have some good coaches there who know what they're doing and they are improving every season.

“At the end we were able to produce that loose, unstructured rugby that we try and replicate in training. We are trying to get fitter and you saw some of the tries we were able to score late in the game which made it a good win.”

The victory sets up next weekend’s encounter with the Welsh perfectly, with Warren Gatland’s side recording a resounding 34-7 victory over Scotland to record a bonus point and put them second in the Six Nations table behind England only on points difference.

Having watched the Wales victory together as a team in Rome, England will turn their attentions to the crunch clash back in London, with the squad flying home on Monday before a light training session in the afternoon in order to make up for the loss of a day this week due to the six-day turnaround.

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"The Welsh game was very entertaining – we were watching as fans - and we cannot wait to get back to our home patch at Twickenham and welcome Wales with open arms,” Care said. “They will be on a high and we will look at what we did well against Italy and what we can work on for Saturday because we know we have to step up to another level.

“We are going to have to play really well to snuff out all of the Welsh threats while causing themselves some problems ourselves. When Wales are playing like that it's great rugby to watch.”

There was only one disappointment for Care on Sunday, as the retirement of AS Roma legend Francesco Totti meant that he was no longer able to steal the glory inside the changing rooms and sit where the Italian football great used to sit.

“Totti's gone so I was in [Aleksandar] Kolarov's seat this time. He’s still a good footballer, so I was happy with that. They should have retired Totti's number and seat, but I don't think they did.”