Danny Care got the expected pailful of stick in training with Harlequins this week - but he wouldn't have it any other way.

So says team-mate Will Skinner, who insists Quins will miss Care hugely this week following the scrum-half's surprise recall to the England fold.

Care was vilified last week after being singled out as the worst offender as ill discipline cost England in the Six Nations defeat to Ireland.

But he was back to his best on Saturday as Quins beat Saracens 21-15 to keep up their push for a Premiership play-off place.

Skinner said: "It's always good to have Danny around. The banter is always there and he keeps the enthusiasm of the squad up.

"He's like a lot of scrum halves, very chirpy, and I wouldn't want that edge to go from him.

"He's had a lot of stick, but I said to him just play your normal game against Saracens - I wanted that vibrancy from him.

"There were a few jokes aimed at him at training this week, but we felt a bit sorry for him too because of the remarks he got in the papers.

"I think with England it was a discipline problem with the whole team, and it is something that we have really focussed on here at Quins.

"We try and keep the penalties down as low as possible, because you can let teams back in a game if you allow them a few points on the board with cheap penalties."

Quins travel to a resurgent Newcastle Falcons this Sunday, facing a club with five Premiership wins from their last five outings.

And Skinner is expecting another thorough examination of Quins' playoff credentials.

He said: "Newcastle are flying at the moment, which emphasises that there are no easy games in this competition.

"Newcastle have picked up a lot of momentum. It always is a hard place to play.

"We can't look too far ahead ourselves, but it's a question of how far we can go by keeping this momentum going.

"We've scored tries in all our games, and our defence recently had not conceded a try for over three games, and that has come about by our ambition and confidence to play.

"But where we've got to change from last season - when we needed one win from the last three to reach the top four - we have to make sure we get those wins in the bag as soon as possible." [25a0] HARLEQUINS Rugby League have drawn Huddersfield Giants at home in the fourth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup, with ties to be played over the weekend of April 4-5.

Chris Melling and David Howell bagged two tries each as Quins won 48-18 at Salford City Reds in Super League on Friday.

Matt Gafa, Joe Mbu, Luke Dorn, Daniel Heckenberg and Chad Randall also notched tries, while Danny Orr kicked six conversions.

Quins host Warrington Wolves on Saturday, kicking off at 3pm.