The England tour of New Zealand is in the books, with the All Blacks recording a clean sweep of two back-to-back wins against the tourists. There was plenty of controversy coming out of the second match, as England were denied the opportunity to draw the score-line in the final play at Eden Park.
England drove for the try-line with a compacted rolling maul, with Jamie George stopped short of the whitewash. However, instead of getting set for the second phase of attack, referee Nic Berry called an end to the match, with All Blacks fullback Beauden Barrett underneath the ball. The decision that Barrett held the ball up made little sense, given that the ball was not over the All Blacks try-line.
So, this decision was then overruled by the TMO, with a secondary review of the rolling maul taking place. The match officials then impeded Ollie Lawrence for obstruction, with England’s pack penalised for ‘truck and trailer’, as the rolling maul split off into a separate pack. England prop Dan Cole was not impressed by the circumstances that brought the match to a close, and believed that England should have had another crack at the All Blacks. Speaking in the post-match mix zone at Eden Park, the Leicester tight-head said;
“I thought the reason we went around the front was because the maul got collapsed in the middle. We got done for truck and trailer. But we were held up short at the line. It was not how I would have wanted or how I thought the game should end, in that way.”
Despite the match ending in dubious circumstances from an England perspective, Cole shifted his attention to a positive element to come out of the test match series. England prop Fin Baxter has been amongst the starring names from the recent tour of New Zealand, as the young Harlequin stepped up in style, to make his debut off the bench in the first Test.
Baxter was called upon after just 20 minutes at the Forsyth Barr Stadium, as veteran loose-head Joe Marler suffered a severe foot injury against Tyrel Lomax in the scrum. Baxter impressed all onlookers as he made his hour long England debut, and rolled the momentum on for a 70 minute run-out against the All Blacks, as he made his first start in the Test at Eden Park. Cole could not praise Baxter high enough, and believes that the England front row is in good stead.
“As I say, you look at the way he played today? instrumental in that first half carrying the ball. I mean, our try at the end of the first half he carried the ball two or three times, he’s kept going.
“He’s played 70 minutes of a Test match in his second Test. Away in New Zealand, like, you know, it’s a baptism of fire and I think he stood up and I think that’s, you know, credit to him. He’s played 70 and he’s kept going, sounds in good stead.”
Whilst one England prop made an early career accomplishment at Eden Park, Cole picked up an accolade from the other end of the spectrum. The tight-head made his 115th Test cap, as he came off the bench against the All Blacks in Auckland, and by doing so surpassed Jason Leonard to become the second-most capped England men’s player of all time.
With former England scrum half Ben Youngs the record holder with 127 caps, Cole has a fair way to go before he surpasses his podcast co-host and long time Leicester teammate. Speaking on the accomplishment after a gruling battle against New Zealand, Cole left the door open for future England caps, yet admitted that he is now ready for a break away from the pitch.
“Thank you. Yeah, I haven’t really thought too much about it. Obviously, to be in that echelon of players, obviously Jason Leonard was someone I massively looked up to when I was a kid. And as I say to me, you know, like in that crop of Ben Youngs, myself, Owen Farrell, there’s a group of us players, Courtney, those kind of guys. You know, it’s a great group of guys to be associated with.”
“That’s my final game of the season, yes. I’ve had 14 months of this season. So yeah, I want to go home, relax. And then I don’t know, we will see. As I say, as I said to Steve, I’m on day to day, if I can get through training I’ll do the next day and keep doing day to day. So we’ll go from here and we’ll go home. And we’ll see.”
With Cole’s time in the England squad expectedly winding down after such a tenure, the stalwart prop was asked for his thoughts on how England have improved this past year. Steve Borthwick’s squad saw 10 players get their first experiences of playing against the All Blacks, with Cole expressing how the predominantly young group of players gained valuable lessons from the trip.
“We’re on an upward trajectory.” Cole added. “I think the way our defensive system, we have with this system, our first year that since post World Cup, our attack has come on leaps and bounds. And the second part of the Six Nations we are trying to be positive.
“We look at the new caps involved in the squad now there’s more… there’s still a lot of young guys there, apart from me and (Joe) Marler dragging the age up.. But there’s, you know, the average age is 20 something or other, and the team will just grow and get better.
“And I think there’s so much, you know, when you lose people like George Furbank a couple days ago, Freddie Steward comes in and the like. So there’s just the team keeps growing and will keep getting better.”
England continue to remain in the fight, and look like a far better side than compared to the one that Steve Borthwick took over ahead of the 2023 Six Nations. Despite coming close in the two Test matches against the All Blacks, Cole can see that the ingredients are there for success against the world’s top nations.
“We’ll keep learning and keep getting better. And it will. I think people do better for the experience sometimes, as a team, ultimately, if we can learn from these games now and hopefully when you get to three years time or four years time, you’re a different team and you win these games.
“But you know, these games are tough, but if we keep doing the right things we keep in a position to win games at some point, it will turn and we’ll be on the right side of them rather than wrong side.”
“So I think, you know, there’s times when we’re under the sticks there. We could easily have folded. But we decided that we’d come out, keep attacking and keep trying to be positive in what we’re doing. And we did at the end of the game. It’s frustrating because we thought we could have gotten them right at the end.”
“Everything the things that makes this team very good, the ingredients are in the changing room, in the squad and in the wider squad. We’ve got you know, the coaches, with the players we’ve got, and the more we can harness you know coming to New Zealand, yes.
“But you’re looking at Eden Park and all that kind of stuff like, it’s a tough place to play. Last play of the game, we are in it to draw, in the last the few minutes of the game, and at some point I say they will they will swing around, as it did with Ireland (2024 Six Nations).”
“We had two wingers (Manny Feyi-Waboso and Tommy Freeman) today and apparently no one knew their names, but, I’m sure they do now.”