England are only two wins away from a first Grand Slam since Martin Johnson was in a Red Rose playing kit rather than a tracksuit, but Cole is paying no attention to the inevitable hype that is building up ahead of Sunday’s RBS 6 Nations clash against Scotland.

Cole only made his debut in the 2010 Six Nations match against Wales when he replaced David Wilson but has since established himself as one of Johnson’s key players, starting all bar one of England’s subsequent games.

And having tasted defeat to both New Zealand and South Africa in the autumn, Leicester tighthead Cole says England’s current success is not about to go to their heads.

He said: “You can talk about fate and history [when being compared to 2003], but we want to create our own history.

“It’d be a nice path to follow on, winning the World Cup – that’s the aim. But, we have to take every game as it comes, it is a boring cliché, I know!

“The team’s been together for just over a year now and I think there’s a lot of talk about environment, but it has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

“We’ve had problems before – we played and lost to New Zealand and South Africa in the autumn, and France last year.

“But we’ve come out the other side and bounced back with victories, and that’s the thing, we’re strong as a group, we’re learning together.”

The image most associated with England’s three victories in the 2011 Tournament has been winger Chris Ashton’s flamboyant swan dive for three of his record six tries.

But Cole maintains he has no desire to match the Northampton flier’s extravagance, even if he could physically match his acrobatics.

“Last time I scored a try was a year ago and it was from about 30 centimetres – my nose ploughed through the ground,” added Cole. “There was no chance of a dive.

“If I ran it in from 70 or 80 metres like Ashton did then I would get to the try-line, collapse wheezing and probably get stretchered off – so no dive, rather a flop to the floor!”