LOSING DAN COLE to a neck injury means England have been deprived of one of their key players ahead of the clash with Ireland this weekend.
The Leicester Tiger is a superb scrummager, while his lifting and movement in the line-out are important too. Away from the set-piece, his ferocious rucking and poaching at the breakdown make him a leading man in those areas for the English as well.
Add in powerful tackling and the ability to offer himself up as a ball carrier thanks to his remarkable fitness, and it’s easy to see why Cole has been a pillar for Stuart Lancaster since he took over as England’s head coach.
Of the 1760 minutes of international rugby Lancaster has been in charge of since 2012 for which Cole has been available, the Tigers tighthead has played 1651 of them. The 26-year-old has been available for selection 22 times under Lancaster and has started 21 of those games.
The England had coach recognises that Cole has been vital to any development he has overseen.
[He's been] very important really,” Lancaster told the RFU. “He’s a British Lions tighthead and everyone knows that in a specialist position like tighthead, you need quality. He’s played virtually every minute of every game I’ve been in charge of.
“I gave Dave Wilson an opportunity against Argentina in the autumn internationals, but he’s [Cole] been the mainstay of the pack and it’s obviously desperately disappointing news.”
The sheer level of Cole’s involvement in international rugby [he also squeezed in a Lions tour last summer] is rare for a prop in the modern game. We are becoming increasingly accustomed to entire front-rows being replaced en masse between the 50th and 60th minutes of games, and sometimes even earlier.
Lancaster doesn’t agree that Cole’s game time burden with club and country has played a part in his injury.
“He’s obviously been well managed as a tighthead coming up, sharing the tighthead duties with [Martin] Castrogiovanni at the club. He’s developed to be extremely durable as a tighthead.
When you play in a position like that, there’s obviously going to be wear and tear on your body. We’ve diagnosed this early. It’s not something that’s prevented him from playing, it’s an accumulation of wear and tear.”
Wilson is the man who is likely to be asked to fill the void, despite only having returned from a calf injury to play 46 minutes for Bath in their Premiership clash against Exeter on Saturday.
Lancaster believes the 28-year-old will be ready to face Ireland, mentioning that England need “all the experience you can get” at tighthead. That would appear to be the main reason Wilson may get the nod ahead of 22-year-old Henry Thomas, who has benched for England in the opening two Six Nations games.
Wilson has 31 international caps, but 24 of those have come from the bench, and many have been very brief cameos. However, Lancaster claims that the Bath tighthead has done enough during his tenure to get his chance against Ireland.
“He earned his starting point on merit against Argentina, from my point of view, and that was on the back of the Argentina tour in the summer, where he’d had a consistent run of games for Bath leading into the end of the season.
“He played extremely well in the Barbarians game and he was one of our standout players on the tour; our scrum was excellent and he was a big part of it.”
