As his close confidant and the first person to find out, Dan Cole was not entirely surprised when Joe Marler told him of his international retirement. Indeed Marler’s decision provoked an altogether different reaction. “He explained his reasons and all that, and I thought: ‘Who the fuck am I going to room with, Joe!? You’ve stitched me up here!’”
It turns out George Ford is the lucky recipient of Marler’s bed but more significantly, it is Sale’s 20-year-old prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour who takes his place in the squad. As Cole says, he will miss Marler, but the world keeps turning. He questions whether, at 37, he still belongs at the highest level almost on a daily basis and Steve Borthwick’s decision to hand the highly-rated Opoku-Fordjour a first call-up is symbolic of the changing of the guard.
“I talk to one less person [now], so I talk to no one,” Cole says. “For selfish reasons you miss him, as he’s a good friend, but at the same time the team continues to move forward. He has gone out on his own terms, so is alive, well and healthy, so he’s still my friend but he’s not here.”
Opoku-Fordjour is the first of a wave of bright new things to be included in the senior set-up, with Gloucester’s Afo Fasogbon and Billy Sela of Bath not far behind. What sets Opoku-Fordjour apart is his ability to play on both sides of the scrum. England see him as a loosehead, Sale as a tighthead – though that has softened recently with the Sharks pointing to his ability to do both.
Cole is old enough to have been around in the days when one prop would be on the bench and he would have to cover both. He is nothing if not colourful in detailing how hard it is to switch between the two – “it would be like wiping your arse with your left hand” – but encourages young props to keep their options open rather than specialising too early.
“I think actually having some basic understanding of how to play loosehead can help you play tighthead, because if I don’t like what is happening loosehead-wise, I can do that on the tighthead,” he says. “Young players coming through playing both sides have an appreciation of both, and they’ll find a position rather than going: ‘I’m a tighthead.’
“[Asher’s] obviously been playing fantastically well in the Premiership for Sale. I think with people like him with the talent they have, it is just trying to not have them think [too much]. But he always gets his hands on the ball and [he can] carry on hitting things, and the structure is there to put people in place, to bring out their skill set.”
Cole does, however, have a word of warning for throwing Opoku-Fordjour et al into the fray too early. “There’s several in the Premiership coming through. But obviously there is a leap between the Premiership and international rugby
“As you look at how dominant South Africa have been and all that kind of stuff, you need a front row to compete. But how do you go about increasing that step up? The easy thing is, you can always play 20-year-olds, but if you lose games of rugby and lose confidence in players, then it’s not really good for anyone.”
As a result, the Leicester Tiger goes back to the coal face against Australia on Saturday a week after the agonising defeat against New Zealand. “However much it hurts to lose like that, I would much prefer to be in the position when it comes down to the final kick rather than be blown out by 20 points and not have a chance. At some point, those games will flip. I have confidence they will because we put a lot of training and effort and process into doing that.”
Had Marler not sustained a foot injury in the first summer Test against New Zealand it could have been cap No 98 against the Wallabies but missing out in Auckland ruled out a century this year – something Cole suspects might have been significant. “I thought part of him wanted 100 caps, but unfortunately, he hurt his foot in the first New Zealand Test, so that would have meant extending on [into next year]. You just have an inclination, but you have no control over what he thinks or does.”
