England
Dan Cole: 'We let Johnno down in 2011'
ESPN Staff
September 1, 2015
© MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images

The England team let Martin Johnson down in 2011, that's the message from tight-head Dan Cole as he prepares for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

England's 2011 infamous World Cup campaign is remembered for off-field ill-discipline and their quarter-final exit to France. The aftermath saw Johnson leave his post as team manager with Stuart Lancaster replacing him.

Cole was part of the 2011 World Cup squad and was also included in Lancaster's 31-man party ahead of the forthcoming tournament but there is seemingly still an element of regret at how the 2011 competition panned out.

"We let Johnno down," Cole said in the Guardian. "He took the brunt of the blame, wrongly in some regards. Especially being from Leicester, you feel for Johnno because he fell on his sword.

"The players were also to blame but he walked away taking all the bullets. It's a credit to the man and shows Johnno's character that he did that. I think he is remembered wrongly - he's just remembered for that World Cup but nobody remembers that we won the Six Nations that year. And at that World Cup we lost to the team [France] who should have won it."

Since the 2011 World Cup, emphasis has been placed on improving the public perception of the England team while Lancaster has invested a huge amount of time in ensuring the culture is sound within the squad. Cole hopes this will be a World Cup where England are remembered for the right reasons, unlike 2011.

"We didn't perform as well as we should have done and, no matter what was said, we did get distracted by what was happening off the field. That just bogged us down. We spent most of our time fighting stuff to do with what we had done off the field, rather than concentrating on what we were doing on it. We were playing matches but the focus was never about that.

"I hope that this time people want to talk about the right things: the rugby we play, not other stuff. Everyone else's memory of the last World Cup is the bad stuff. No one has a positive memory of it. It would be very nice to end this one with a positive legacy."

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