Danny Care's take on teammate's controversial seven-minute sin-bin

Harlequins scrum-half Danny Care has provided a player’s perspective of the ill-famed yellow card his teammate Irne Herbst received against Bath on Saturday.

The Quins lock was yellow-carded shortly after coming on as a second-half substitute, but controversially returned after only seven minutes to help his side stave off a Bath resurgence in the final ten minutes, which saw them come close to overturning a 40-3 deficit.

Bath scored two tries while the South African was off the field, so it is understandable why the visitors inveighed against the mistake after their 40-36 defeat. This in turn prompted the RFU to issue a statement apologising for the error that was made while confirming that the result would stand.

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But Care has insisted that he had no idea that this had happened during the match, and only found out after the final whistle had been blown.

Speaking on his Rugby Union Weekly podcast alongside Ugo Monye and Chris Ashton, Care said that it was his recent England teammate, and Bath counterpart, Ben Spencer who informed him as to what had unfolded at the Stoop.

Points Flow Chart

Harlequins win +4

Time in lead

79

Mins in lead

0

98%

% Of Game In Lead

0%

43%

Possession Last 10 min

57%

0

Points Last 10 min

14

The 37-year-old leapt to the defence of Herbst, saying he would have only been following orders from someone who had told him he was able to return to the field of play rather than attempting anything underhanded.

“I had no idea what was going on, no idea until after,” the recently retired England international said.

“Then Ben Spencer was like ‘you realise your sin-bin was six-and-a-half.’

“I was in the mix, playing this game, and I had no idea what was going on. Genuinely.

“Who’s let him off? I’ve been there a few times, you get told in no unspecific terms that you can go on now. You do your ten and you go on.

“Someone’s obviously said to him ‘you’re up, you’re on.’

“He’s not just run on, has he?”