Despite being revered as one of England’s best players in their 2023 World Cup sem-final loss to South Africa in Paris, Dan Cole has revealed just how one-sided his game actually was.
The picture is this: Dan Cole had been recalled to the national squad just mere months ahead of the World Cup in France after many years in the international wilderness. After being made somewhat of a scapegoat after England’s 2019 final loss to the Springboks, Cole found his rugby reinvigorated under the leadership of Steve Borthwick at Leicester Tigers. Proving once again to be one of the best scrummagers in English rugby, Cole would again get his chance in the all-white of England when his boss took over the national coaching job in 2022.
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So fast forward to the World Cup semi-final at the Stade de France when Cole lined up against arguably the greatest pack in the rugby world.
The action-packed match was eventually won in the dying embers by the defending champions, but for all the power of the Springbok starting pack and the bomb squad, Cole was not there for the breaking. Putting in quite possibly the greatest scrummaging performance of his career, the now 37-year-old’s performance helped cement him as one of the greatest props in England’s history.
In true prop style, however, a few aspects were missing from his performance, namely tackling, catching and passing, and naturally…no kicking.
That’s right, speaking to Ben Youngs on their ‘For The Love Of Rugby’ podcast, Cole admitted that throughout the entire semi-final match, he failed to make a single tackle or get his hands on the ball just once – much to Youngs’ amusement. Just goes to show how good his scrummaging was eh…
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The veteran prop has since overtaken Jason Leonard as the highest-capped England forward ever, with 118 international caps, including 5,120 minutes played, 43.39 average minutes per game, 77 Wins, 3 Draws and 38 Losses.
Go behind the scenes of both camps during the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 2021. Binge watch exclusively on RugbyPass TV now
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