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15th June 2022
05:09pm BST
"As a player," Hodgson adds, "you can never forget your bread and butter, which is your club rugby. As much as you want to play international rugby and represent your country, you can't get away from the fact that the hard work is done on the training field, Monday to Friday, with the club you work for. They are the games you'll play in and get recognised by your international coach, and Ford has certainly done that. "George has gone away, worked hard on his game and continues to be driven to do well. Whether he gets a recall [to England's squad to tour Australia], I don't know. He's got two guys, in Owen Farrell and Marcus Smith, that are both playing unbelievably well, too. If Owen is going to be picked as a 12, then maybe there is room in the squad. All George can do is focus on himself and leading that Leicester team out in that last game for him before he moves [to Sale]. You never know."[caption id="attachment_342063" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Danny Care (left) and Charlie Hodgson (right) sing the national anthem with England teammates, in 2010. (Credit: Getty Images)[/caption]
"It's lovely to see him [back in the squad] and it is also proof of what I was saying, with George. You've got to go back on concentrate on performances with your club. Danny has done that. He's got an amazing partnership with Marcus Smith, which, ultimately, must help his cause in terms of selection. They go hand-in-hand together and certainly understand each other... Danny has been playing unbelievably well for these past few years and it has been a bit of a strange one, that he was not in these England squads."Asked for his early impressions of a then 21-year-old Danny Care, when he first crossed paths with him, Hodgson smiles.
"He was always a confident character," he remarks. "Even when he was playing for Leeds, he was an annoying shit! "He was your stereotypical scrumhalf - just getting in your face and annoying the hell out of you. Just unbelievably confident and cock-sure of himself. And that's a really nice trait. That's not in a bad way about Danny, at all. I like him and we get on well. That's just why he does so well - because he's competitive and he just wants to win."As for his own stand-out Premiership memory, Hodgson's biggest take-home lesson was how getting your nose in front, on the scoreboard, is so important. "When I played for Sale, against Leicester, we got ahead, stayed ahead and there was no real coming back for them. Likewise when Saracens, when we beat Bath [in 2015]. "However you can do it - penalties, drop goals, tries - get yourself ahead and the team chasing will find it so much harder. You're then taking more risks and, when the stakes are so high, it makes it so tough." BT Sport is the home of Gallagher Premiership Rugby. Watch Leicester Tigers v Saracens in the 2022 final live on BT Sport 1 from 2pm this Saturday. For more info go to bt.com/sport/rugby-union
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