ITALY v ENGLAND:THIS TIME last year Dan Cole was on loan at Nottingham, more outlaw than sheriff in terms of England's frontrow pecking order, wondering if he would ever get a regular start for Leicester.
It is a long way from Meadow Lane to the Eternal City, but the prop’s first start for his country, against Italy, should offer encouragement to all aspiring 19-stone frontrow forwards.
There are a couple of key differences, between Cole and your average big lad in the lower leagues. The latest red rose newcomer may just be the oldest-looking 22-year-old in the land, having learned his trade from some of the most grizzled old pros around, and he can get around the field with indecent haste.
Not since Phil Vickery first appeared has a youthful tighthead looked quite so comfortable in his new surroundings as the 6ft 3in Cole did as a replacement against Wales. A Cole-fired England could just be the long-term future, albeit not a particularly environmentally-friendly one. “He’s not a gamble because I know he’s up to it,” said a visibly confident Graham Rowntree, England’s scrum coach.
Rowntree should know. Like Martin Johnson and the England forwards coach, John Wells, he grew up in the tough school of the Tiger pack where short cuts are unknown. Even the toilet tissue in the training ground loos is harder than other clubs. So they say.
The management hate it when people talk about a “Leicester mafia” within the England camp, but yesterday you could almost glimpse the violin cases under the top table.
A player capable of keeping Martin Castrogiovanni and Julian White out of the Leicester first team is a force to be reckoned with. Both Wasps and Clermont Auvergne have felt the rough end of Cole’s scrummaging this winter and Castro will have warned his colleagues to take note. Cole sees it slightly differently: “I’d imagine he’d be telling them to target the guy making his first start.”
The only other change in the starting XV is the return of Riki Flutey. Italy coach Nick Mallett has been forced to make two changes to his 24-man squad. Valerio Bernabo and Pablo Canavosio return in place of Carlo Antonio Del Fava and Simon Picone who were unavailable after being injured in training.
ENGLAND (v Italy, Sunday): D Armitage (L Irish); M Cueto (Sale), M Tait (Sale), R Flutey (Brive), U Monye (Harlequins); J Wilkinson (Toulon), D Care (Harlequins); T Payne (Wasps), D Hartley (Northampton), D Cole (Leicester), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Saracens, capt), J Haskell (S Français), L Moody (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins).
