Fran Cotton: Firsts & Lasts
The latest in our series speaking to former England captains sees Fran Cotton relive his first and last as skipper.
Larger than life England and British & Irish Lions legend Fran Cotton was born in Wigan. The son of a talented rugby league player, he excelled at rugby union at Newton-le-Willows Grammar School, continuing to impress at Loughborough, where he studied PE and Maths.
Moving from Coventry RFC to captain Sale, Fran gave as much to rugby as the game gave to him, with tremendous dedication and a level of fitness unusual in the seventies. He also had the versatility to play either tight-head or loose-head prop and a fine understanding of tactics.
His first England cap came against Scotland in 1971, Fran discovering that he had been picked from the pages of the Leicester Mercury. A year earlier he had been chaired off the field by fans after captaining the legendary North West in the first-ever victory in England over the All Blacks in 86 encounters.
One of several world-class Lancashire players of the time, he had featured large in the County Championship title win against Cornwall in 1968-9.
For his country, Fran helped inspire England to victories against Scotland and France in 1973, was in the sides that beat New Zealand 16-10 in Auckland and Australia 20-3 at Twickenham. He captained England three times in 1975, having been part of the 1974 Lions side’s four-Test winning tour of South Africa.
Fran’s versatility saw him play loosehead in England’s Grand Slam-winning team in 1980 and on the 1977 Lions tour to New Zealand, when pressurised by the Lions’ dominant pack, the All Blacks resorted to three-man scrums. It was on that tour that photographer Colin Elsey took the famous picture of Fran covered in mud.
He took on various coaching roles, managed the Lions’ 1997 winning South Africa tour, and was involved in rugby administration, including serving as Chairman of Club England and on the RFU Management Board.
With former Sale team mate, Steve Smith, in 1987 he set up the successful Cotton Traders Company, the two England captains going on to become captains of industry.
First – 18 January 1975 at Lansdowne Road, Ireland 12 – 9 England
“Bob Weighill, the RFU Secretary, phoned me and said he wanted to give me the heads up that I was to captain the team before the public announcement.
“It was a real surprise because John Pullin had been captaining and had been very successful, particularly when we beat New Zealand on tour. I don’t think anybody expected him not to continue as captain.
“I told my mum and dad who were very proud, particularly my dad who was a former rugby league player and my biggest supporter. He came over on the ferry from Hollyhead to Dunleary to watch the game, which was great. Parents didn’t have a lot of opportunity to watch us in those days and certainly not on tour, which most couldn’t afford.
“It was Billy’s (Bill Beaumont) first cap and he did pretty well against Willie John McBride, a massive figure and a great player. It was a pretty daunting debut but he performed well.
“I remember it being pretty even, a tough game of rugby. We were leading 9- 6 then in the last 10 minutes there was a scrum 10 yards out which wheeled. Our scrum half, Jan Webster, half got to it but as the ball was on the floor Alan Old our 10 picked it up but the Ireland centre, Mike Gibson, was on it in a flash and that was it. We had ten minutes to go but couldn’t pull it back, it’s often the odd mistake that makes the difference in a Test match.”
Last 15 February 1975 in Cardiff, Wales 20 – 4 England
“Wales away and we were stuffed by a great team, as Wales headed to their 18th title. Nigel Horton’s try accounted for our only points on the board.
“Cardiff’s not a very happy place to be when you’ve been walloped and it was a tough moment but we were well beaten and had no excuses. We just weren’t good enough on the day.
“In those days you couldn’t get together until 48 hours before the match, so Thursday afternoon. You’d have a practice and just get on with it, it was a completely different set up to the modern day.
“Our England coach, John Burgess, was also my Lancashire coach, so I had a good idea of how he wanted us to play the game but nobody ever discussed who’d be in the team and certainly how we should play was never discussed. As captain you were there to give the team talk, the post-match dinner speech those were seen as your main duties, although obviously on the pitch you were in charge.
“The only match we won in that campaign was 7-6 in Scotland but I’d been down with flu and had to cry off so Tony Neay was in charge and that Wales defeat was my last as captain.
I had my moment, I had the greatest honour in rugby, there is no higher honour than captaining England
Fran Cotton
“I remember Mike Burton was dropped before the Ireland game because he was sent off when captaining Gloucester in Bristol and bowed to the crowd, who were giving him a bit of stick. The England selectors thought it was ungentlemanly behaviour. When he was reinstated as prop for the Scotland game as I was sick, he asked if he was captain as well.
“I was obviously disappointed not to remain as captain but to be honest it didn’t bother me too much as long as England were winning. I had my moment, I had the greatest honour in rugby, there is no higher honour than captaining England. As a boy I would never even have believed I could one day play for England. It was a real source of pride for me and my family.
“At the end of the day rugby gave me so, so much, the lessons I learned, the friends and contacts I made. You develop confidence, you know how to be part of a team. It certainly helped me with my business career.
“Rugby is the greatest sport in the world because of the democracy, the democratising of the team. You can walk into any clubhouse and it makes no difference whether you’re a bricklayer or a banker. Everyone’s objective is the same, playing a game of rugby, it’s a great model for society. You can see that in the way clubs have helped out recently while times have been so hard.
“It’s going to take three or four years for the country to return to normality. I’m hopeful that our rugby clubs weather the storm. Last weekend I was down at Stockport rugby club watching my grandsons, Charlie and Benji Kennedy, who are eight and six. They were having a terrific time back at distanced training.”
In 1970, as a Loughborough student aged 22, Fran won the Glengarth Sevens there alongside Steve Smith.
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