STUART LANCASTER last night sentenced his England squad to community­ service – after giving Danny Care the boot for drink-driving.

Lancaster has yet to conduct his first training session since taking charge of the Red Rose on a caretaker­ basis, following the resignation­ of Martin Johnson as boss in November.

But he was quick to flex his muscles after Care was busted early on New Year’s Day – only three weeks after he was arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

Alex Spink, Daily Mirror

This latest embarrassing episode brings fresh shame on the England squad.

And it comes just three months after the infamous scenes of drunken behaviour featuring, among others, Mike Tindall on ‘dwarf-tossing’ night at the World Cup.

Lancaster described it as “completely unacceptable”. And he warned that Care – who was found with approximately twice the legal amount of alcohol in his system – would not play for England again until “we feel he can be trusted to behave appropriately on and off the field”.

That will not be in this Six Nations, despite England’s head coach revealing that the Harlequins scrum-half is “hurting like I have never seen a player I have coached hurt before”.

The 25-year-old, who will plead guilty when he appears in court on January 16, has been fined £10,000 by Quins and ordered to work on the club’s inner-city coaching programme until the end of the season.

Lancaster said: “I don’t think Danny has got a lifestyle problem by any stretch of the imagination.

“Having said that, you can’t condone what he has done. It is unacceptable and he has to pay the consequence.

“Hopefully, it will give him the kick-start he needs to become what I believe will be world class.”

Lancaster insists he was not looking to make a “big statement” to the rest of the squad in his treatment­ of Care, who he has known since the player emerged through the Leeds academy.

But he concedes a damaging association­ between England’s rugby squad and alcohol has been made by many since the World Cup – and he has pledged to tackle it head-on.

Lancaster added: “There is a perception out there and I know the players well enough to know they won’t enjoy that perception.

“That’s part of the reason we are holding our training camp at a Yorkshire Two League club, rather than out in Portugal.

“By doing some community­ work while we’re there with coaches from around the Leeds area, we are trying to make sure that people from grassroots­ level feel a connection with the England team again.”

It is exactly what England need after the excesses of the World Cup, where the players enjoyed five-star luxury and some behaved like five-star­­ fools.

Lancaster and Graham Rowntree, his forwards coach, are attempting to draw a line under the past and move on.

The way forward, they believe, is to go back to basics. To the muddy pitches at the West Park club in Leeds where Lancaster still coaches the under-11s.

He said: “When Graham and I turn up to our local junior club with our kids and we go in the clubhouse, we want them to think that the England team is a team they can associate with and be proud of.

“That’s a big part of the reason why we’re staying in this country.”

Ironically, it is the very club where Care first picked up a rugby ball and learned the sport which has brought him fame and, now, misfortune.­

Last night, Care was inconsolable,­ but faced up to his shame and admitted: “I made a bad decision and need to take the punishment.

“I have made a couple of stupid decisions in the past weeks.

“I can only hope for the chance in the future to prove that those decisions­ were the exception and not the rule.”

The last thing Lancaster and Rowntree want to do is banish senior players at a time when their planning is being hindered by a spate of injuries. Louis Deacon is seemingly out for the Six Nations, while Manu Tuilagi and Courtney Lawes both face a race to be fit for England’s opener against Scotland on February 4.

But the management duo have made it quite clear that they are not prepared to compromise their hard-line­­ stance on behaviour in the name of expediency.

Rowntree said: “I don’t believe there is a culture problem in English rugby.

“But the players will know from minute one of the camp that there are limits.

“We want the lads to go out and relax, but there have to be limits of when they come home and when they have to stop drinking.

“We don’t want it to be like a labour camp, but we have to be tighter on what is expected of an England rugby player.

“We really have to tighten those things up.”