There is a dark and dingy corner of the changing rooms at Oval Park, Leicester’s training ground, where the front rowers dwell. The wooden benches upon which they perch seem to creak with the memories of those who have come before, a club synonymous with scrummaging strength building its identity around the burly blokes. From the ABC club of Graham Rowntree, Richard Cockerill and Darren Garforth, through more modern-day masters of the dark arts like Marcos Ayerza, Martin Castrogiovanni and the recently-retired Dan Cole, it is a rich lineage.
Joe Heyes humbly admits that he does not yet deserve to be bracketed in that exalted company but the 26-year-old is moving in the right direction. Since being thrown in at the deep end as a teenager amid an injury crisis in 2018, Heyes has already appeared nearly 170 times in a Tigers shirt; a 15th England cap, and his biggest starting opportunity yet, arrived in the win over Australia on Saturday.
The prop knows he treads in the footsteps of some illustrious predecessors. “You’ve got Castrogiovanni, Julian White, Coley – there is that legacy that is there,” Heyes chronicles of Tigers tightheads as he gears up for a clash with Fiji. “You have to respect that. But in some ways, you do create your own.
“I respect the history side of that, but it is a good opportunity now the No 3 shirt is mine at the moment, I want to leave that in the best place for the next person to come in. It’s a nice legacy to leave behind.”
Heyes is still getting used to not having Cole sat next to him in front row corner. The 38-year-old still stalks Oval Park but has swapped his boots for a suit having moved into a recruitment and retention role after retiring at the end of last season. There could have been few better mentors for Heyes as he was making his way for club and country, and there is a sense of a player kicking on again to fill the vacancy created by the departure of a huge figure in his life.
Indeed, Heyes credits the former prop for him becoming an England international at all. Both dad Darren and granddad George were professional goalkeepers and Heyes initially pursued football – but a switch at 15 to rugby under the guidance of Rachel, his Irish mother, convinced him away from the family trade. Cole, though, lit a fire in him. “I was infatuated with that man,” he says, startlingly.
Elaboration is required. "He was the guy. You’d just get excited every time someone dropped a ball because it was like, 'Coley's going to scrum now.' That was someone that for a young tighthead prop going through the Tigers system where it was mostly about scrummaging and defence which are two things that are my standard now, if I go well in the scrum and in defence then I've had a good game. That's what he brought and that's what Tigers respect and want from their props."
At 16, Heyes was given a book called Rugby Tough by the academy manager at Leicester having expressed an aversion to tackling; the ploy worked, and Heyes has helped restore pride in the defence and the set-piece for his country over the last 12 months. A start against Australia, with British and Irish Lion Will Stuart withheld on the bench, was earned in Argentina, where Heyes grew in stature within the squad four years on from making his international bow against the United States.
Under the guidance of scrum coach Tom Harrison, England have made huge improvements in the last year. “We want to be a ruthless scrum; we don't want to be doing stupid things and giving away ridiculous penalties for over leaning or going too early,” Heyes explains. “We're much more self-disciplined in the way we go about it, we don't give away those silly penalties or 50/50s. There's nine front rowers in the squad and it's everyone's responsibility.”
On the field, then, Heyes’s primary responsibility is clear; off it, though, he’s carved out a niche as England’s unofficial tour guide. His passion for scrummaging is surpassed by his love of history, which he showcased on tour, taking the squad around the sights of Washington DC before the game against the USA. Last week, Heyes was admonished by Sam Underhill, England’s resident quizmaster, for setting a round of questions that proved too hard for the rest of the squad: “General Custer died at the Battle of Little Bighorn? Nobody knew that! That was quite frustrating, really.”
Joe Heyes took the team on a history tour of Washington D.C. during our summer tour 🙌
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) August 8, 2025
See how it went on the O2 Inside Line: This Rose 📺@O2 | #WearTheRose
Squadmates Stuart and Alex Coles, pleasingly, are more au fait with historical matters, allowing Heyes – who cites the precolonial era as his favourite period – a chance to indulge more deeply. He now feels settled within the England group; while young tightheads Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Afolabi Fasogbon and Vilikesa Sela are pushing for places, on recent form, Heyes will take some shifting.
“When we went to Japan and New Zealand [in July 2024], and I wasn't selected for any of those games. I probably wasn't happy with how I went that season. Then we had had the autumn games last year and I wasn't selected and I just thought to myself that I need to improve myself here. That came around my scrum and my defence, and fundamentally just finding love for the game again.
“I have to credit [former Leicester head coach] Michael Cheika in terms of building me back up and really enjoying those two things in my game. I just reorganised my priorities and did what made me happy, and that reflected in the way I started playing rugby.”
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