Danny Care Retires With A Victory In Emotional Harlequins Farewell For Legendary Scrum-Half

Harlequins legend and former England scrum-half Danny Care retires in style with an emotional, 24-22 win against Exeter in his last game for the club.

Care finished his 19-year career with Quins in his 395th game for the London side.

With special permission from Premiership Rugby, the 38-year-old was allowed to wear his iconic number nine shirt from the bench.

The scrum-half played 101 times for England, and won two Premiership titles with Harlequins.

Danny Care Retires With A Win Against Exeter

A crucial penalty from Marcus Smith gave Quins the lead with ten minutes to go, with Premiership strugglers Exeter putting in one of their best performances of a poor campaign.

But without securing a bonus point for scoring a fourth try, the hosts are officially out of contention for the play-offs.

Harlequins travel to fourth-placed Bristol Bears in their final fixture of the season. But even a bonus-point win would only see Quins finish a maximum of fifth in the table.

There will be no Twickenham fairytale ending for Danny Care, then, but the Quins legend was at least able to sign off from the Twickenham Stoop with a victory.

Speaking after the game, Care told TNT Sports: “I owe this club so much.

“They’ve stuck by me through thick and thin and it’s been an honour every time to wear the shirt and I’m really excited for the next person who gets the opportunity.

“It’s a special club and I’ll be ing them all on the way.”

Care Pays Tribute To “Special” Club Harlequins

Having spent most of his career at Harlequins, it’s easy to forget that Danny Care is not actually a one-club man.

He ed the London side from hometown club Leeds as a 19-year-old, and has spent that long again at Quins.

Two Premierships and a European Challenge Cup later, he bids an emotional farewell.

“It’s been a really mad week,” he added.

“I felt uncomfortable at there being so much attention.

“I’ll be honest, everyone thinks that I love attention, but I probably feel more comfortable hearing negative things about me than positive.

“But the outpouring of love has been incredible and it makes me realise all over again just how special this game is, the amount of amazing people you get to meet and come across.

“I’m just so glad we got a win, because it was looking a bit sketchy at the end.”

Thank you @dannycare ❤️#COYQ | #DC9 pic.twitter.com/slQ9c8sBAL

— Harlequins 🃏 (@Harlequins) May 13, 2025

Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson led the praise of Care after the match.

He said: “Danny has had a phenomenal career with close to 400 games. He is a top bloke and a true Quins’ legend and I don’t think his feats will be repeated again.

“It’s been an emotional week for him as injuries have prevented him from training to the intensity he wants so he’s getting out at the right time.

“However today our performance wasn’t clinical enough as we didn’t get the fluidity we had last week.

“They were very physical and frustrated us at the breakdown with handling errors stopping us from getting away from them.

“We are disappointed not to get the bonus point but our play-off chances were already pretty slim so winning was the priority as the game was in the balance.”