‘A psychologist rang after World Cup but I said no’
hdan Cole reveals his reaction to final pain, how he is missing Tom Youngs and why Leicester will relish Leinster’s visit today
‘You just get on with it.” This is Dan Cole’s solution to a lot of challenges that life throws at him. From the retirement of one of his best mates in Tom Youngs, to facing a Leinster side who are to all intents and purposes the Ireland national team in today’s Champions Cup quarterfinal.
And to being the fall guy in a World Cup final defeat. In brief, Cole came on as a replacement tighthead prop for Kyle Sinckler in just the third minute of the 2019 final against South Africa and the England scrum went to pieces. A scrum is an eight-man operation, but Cole was the face of the collective failure.
After their high-profile penalty shoot-out misses in 1994 and 1996, footballers Roberto Baggio and Gareth Southgate attempted (unsuccessfully) to outrun their own disappointments to a ranch in Argentina and a volcano in Indonesia, respectively. It took years for each to find his own form of catharsis.
Cole, on the other hand, was desperate to play again as soon as possible for Leicester. He still bears the scar, but has never been tempted to pick at it. “I remember a psychologist rang me and said ‘do you want to talk about it?’,” Cole said. “And I was like, ‘No. No one has died. Yes it was horrible and rough, but it is still a game of rugby. Life goes on.’
“They said, ‘But for you this was massive.’ Well it is and it isn’t. I can’t let my entire life be defined by this because I had another game in a week’s time and my kids don’t care. They don’t care that Daddy lost in a World Cup final. They are just happy to see their daddy again.
“The first thing you want to do after a loss is play again and prove people wrong. You have people who think you are s--- because the scrum has gone badly and you have that motivation to prove them wrong. It is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life, but at the same time I had been in Japan for eight weeks and the kids were about three years old and when I got home one of them said ‘I’ve got a daddy’. Straightaway it puts things into perspective.”
Cole has never watched the final back and has about as much time for introspection as he does for social media. “When you think about the opportunity missed and the pain of losing and all the work you put in, you could reflect that I played for England for 10 years, won 95 caps and the pinnacle of my career was an absolute dud,” Cole said. “But you can’t change it. I don’t regret anything. You just get on with it.”
And that is exactly what Cole has
‘Yes it was horrible and rough, but it is still just a game of rugby. I was like, No one has died’
done. Arguably, he is playing the most consistent rugby of his career under Steve Borthwick this season. Even with the departure of Youngs, he has no intention of hanging up his boots at 34.
“I remember Northampton away this season and we beat them heavily,” Cole said. “You look around the changing room for your mate because we have had some godawful times at Franklin’s Gardens for a lot of years. It is one time you want your mate there to celebrate it with, and that was when it hit me then that Tom wasn’t there and then I thought about my own age. But then you move on. You play rugby because you enjoy it and as long as I enjoy it I will keep playing.”
It is no coincidence that Cole is enjoying his rugby so much since Borthwick came on board as head coach. Of course, winning helps, but Borthwick’s main influence has been to provide clarity and simplicity that had been sorely lacking at the club for many years. “Everyone knows what you are doing, so all you have to do is turn up and do your job,” Cole said.
“Steve told me my first job is scrum, then maul, then defence. He simplified it for a lot of players. In an ideal world, we can be like the All Blacks who can do everything: scrum, run, carry, offload. In reality, in the Premiership you’re not going to have an All Blacks pack, so you have to play to your individual strengths.”
On the day that Telegraph Sport visits Welford Road, the Leicester pack do around six minutes of live scrummaging following the main training session, with Cole splitting reps at tighthead with Joe Heyes. It is short, sharp and perfectly planned, which is a world away from the sessions Cole started out doing for Leicester 15 years ago.
“You know you are an old man when you hear people say that was a hard training session and you think that’s a hard training session? Did it last for three hours? No. Did we batter the f--- out of each other? No. Did anyone get split open? No.
“I am happy that I came through that era. You feel a bit of a throwback, but compared to where we were and the intensity you train. You could never go flat out because you were so tired. We used to joke that we played three times a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.”
Those were in the days when Leicester boasted four international tightheads and come what may they would always be in the Premiership final at the end of the season. Cole thought those times would never end. But then it did and Leicester have been marooned in the wilderness for the best part of a decade.
Now, with a home Premiership semi-final guaranteed and a mouthwatering Champions Cup match-up against Leinster today, Cole is determined to savour every moment of Leicester’s run-in.
“The club and the city are excited to welcome the best team in Europe to Welford Road,” Cole said.
“They are an international team, they have got a fantastic scrum and maul, but we’ll just get on with it,” he added.