England’s pack is best in world says Dan Cole

Having won his battle to return from a serious neck injury, Dan Cole knows he now has a fight on his hands to win his England place back in time for the Six Nations.
Cole believes England's forward pack is probably “the best in the world”, with his main tight-head rival Davy Wilson nailing down the No.3 shirt in his absence and Kieran Brookes impressing off the bench.
“The more bodies you have the more competitive it is and that drives everyone on to be better and ultimately for the team to be better,” Cole said. “Hopefully when the Six Nations comes around I will be ready if they want me.
“In pure scrum and lineout terms there aren't many who could challenge it (the England pack), maybe the French on their day. In general I think England do have the best forward pack in the world at the minute.”
At present, Cole is concentrating on getting back to the form and level of match fitness that he showed before being forced out of the game earlier this year.
While last Sunday's knock-on-a-thon against London Welsh was not to everyone's liking, it at least gave the 27-year-old British Lion plenty of live scrum practice.
“You can do all the scrums in training that you like but the work you do running from set-piece to set-piece helps get you back into the pace of the game. Personally, I was quite happy doing it even if 14 other blokes weren't.”
Cole spent “six months sat on his arse” watching what he ate – and being a frustrated spectator at games – before an intensive three-month period of rehab and training saw him pass the necessary return-to-play protocols.
His main worry on returning to the ‘coalface' was whether he still had what it takes. “You're not worried about your neck so much you're just worried about whether you are going to be rubbish,” he said.
“I was never going to take to the field in a worse state than I was, especially neck-wise. In my rehab I had my neck strength and neck load monitored and the return to playing programme involves everything from hitting tackle bags to live scrums, so when you take the field you know you are in a safe spot. I'm improving game by game but I'm still not the finished article. As Cockers keeps reminding me it is my pre-season. Saracens was a pretty good game and Welsh was a good test so I am not too far away from being away from where I near to be.
“Getting the boys back around will help because I've played with Tom Youngs and Marcos (Ayerza) for a few years and we have a good understanding and feel for each other's game.
“The next month is massive for Leicester. We have Wasps, Toulon at home and away, and Saints … they are international Test matches in all but name.”
JON NEWCOMBE