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England tighthead Dan Cole is uncertain whether the epic 33-31 loss to France in Lyon in round five of the Guinness Six Nations was his last match of international rugby.
At the age of 36 and with 111 caps to his name, the Leicester Tigers prop is in the twilight years of his career, but has enjoyed an international renaissance since Steve Borthwick became England boss.
Having been in the Test rugby wilderness for three years after the 2019 World Cup final, Cole was recalled to the England squad for the 2023 Six Nations and has featured heavily since then.
Cole started against Scotland, Ireland and France in this year’s Championship, and stood toe-to-toe with Les Bleus’ gargantuan pack in Lyon. In fact, he has produced some of the best scrummaging performances of his career since his Test return, notably against the Springboks in the World Cup semi-final last year.
He was asked whether the match in France was the last for England on his For the Love of Rugby recently, to which he could not give a concrete answer, but joked that the decision might well be taken out of his hands.
“That answer I can’t really give,” he said when asked. “It might be, it might not be. As ever, I joke about it in camp but my international career is day to day. If I can get through the day, it goes to the next one.
“I’ve had eight weeks away from home, I have to spend some time with the family. They come first.
“I’ll speak to Steve and the coaches and we’ll go from there. That’s if they want to pick me, which obviously there’s a chance they might not, so therefore it might be my last game because they might not pick me.
“You never want to jump too far in the future. There’s still a fairly big part of the domestic season to play, so my thoughts now move to Leicester and playing at home and trying to get as high up in the Premiership as possible.
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