This time last year Dan Cole was on loan at Nottingham, more outlaw than sheriff in terms of England's front-row 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 19st front-row forwards. Get your head down, son, and someone will wedge a cap on it eventually.
There are a couple of key differences, however, 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 on the scene has a youthful tighthead looked quite so comfortable in his new surroundings as the 6ft 3in Cole did as a second-half replacement for Davey Wilson against Wales last weekend.
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'. Or so they say. "Players from Leicester tend to be hard-nosed, get stuck in, don't moan about it and get on with it," emphasised Wells, himself the epitome of down-to-earth Welford Road values. The management understandably hate it when people talk about a "Leicester mafia" within the England camp buttoday you could almost glimpse the violin cases tucked beneath the top table.
Cole even attended the same school as Johnson, in Market Harborough, and was originally a flanker with South Leicester. One of his grandfathers was a coal miner, though, and he has the broad shoulders to go with a flinty mind-set. "His temperament is his strength," nodded Rowntree. "He doesn't go around banging his head but, if things start going wrong, I'm sure he'll be right there in line."
Wells also rates his work ethic: "He went to the Churchill Cup last summer and fingers were pointed at him regarding areas he had to work on, particularly around his mobility. Well, he's come back, got himself in really good shape and is starting to impose himself in ways other than at the set piece. If he'd been fit in November it would have been an interesting debate. His next stage will be coping with people who have played against him before. How he handles that will determine how good a player he becomes."
What everyone agrees is that a player capable of keeping Martin Castrogiovanni and Julian White out of the Leicester first team in recent weeks is someone to be reckoned with. Both Wasps and Clermont Auvergne have felt the rough end of Cole's scrummaging this winter and Castro, part of Italy's front row on Sunday, will have warned his colleagues to take note. The self-effacing 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 Johnson's starting XV is the return at centre of Riki Flutey, who has recovered from the dead leg which sidelined him last week. Steve Borthwick and Simon Shaw both missed training today with a stomach bug but should be fit to fly to Rome tomorrow.
Johnson is adamant that no one in a white shirt will be taking Italy for granted. "They don't score a lot of points but they make it very difficult for you to do so. We have to be up to the physical challenge first and foremost. If you don't win that area, everything else goes out of the window."
His full-back Delon Armitage is among those seeking a swift improvement on his performance against Wales: "That's the worst game I've ever played for England. The seven-day break between games is really killing me … I let the boys down a little bit."
