Referee Craig Joubert shows Danny Care the yellow card

England scrum-half Danny Care has apologised for his yellow card in the 14-13 defeat by Ireland on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Harlequins half-back was sin-binned in the 69th minute, the 10th England player to receive a yellow card in the last four matches.

"I don't think I can defend what I did. I could only hold my hands up afterwards," he told itv.com.

"I apologised to the boys and said I wouldn't let it happen again. I've never been more gutted in my life."

Ireland led the Six Nations game 11-6 when Care was shown the yellow card for a shoulder charge on Marcus Horan, just 12 minutes after the England player had come on as a replacement.

Team manager Martin Johnson was visibly angered by the incident and later said indiscipline had cost England dear in recent matches.

Care added: "There's no hiding that we lost another game because of our indiscipline. We threw the game away and I was a major part of that.

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"A lot of people are saying what I did was pointless but there was a reason for it. I saw Marcus Horan stood in that ruck, and I saw their scrum-half Peter Stringer looking for the ball.

"I thought: 'I'll try and hit Horan on top of Stringer, then it might slow the ball down a bit. And if we can get a turnover from it, then great.'

"I thought the ball was still in the ruck. It was a silly thing to do, I admit, but there was some thought behind it. I realise now it was unnecessary to do it at that point in the game.

"I don't think I can really defend what I did, but also I believe because of the disciplinary situation with England at the moment it was magnified."

Care was the second England player to be sin-binned against Ireland, with Wasps prop Phil Vickery seeing yellow after 55 minutes.

Centre Mike Tindall and fly-half Andy Goode were sin-binned against Wales, with flanker James Haskell and centre Shane Geraghty given yellow cards in the victory over Italy.

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