Just over 21 years since England tasted glory at the 2003 World Cup, the success remains a double-edged sword for many of its protagonists.

The revelations of Ben Cohen this week will have caused many to pause for thought. As the former wing told Telegraph Sport, he would trade his medal and the fond memories for steady employment two decades later.

Even as one of life’s bristling optimists, who stresses that the triumph brought a life-changing level of exposure to many of his old team-mates, Lawrence Dallaglio admits he regrets the immediate aftermath as well as mistakes made in the medium term.

“I think the biggest thing to take from 2003 was that we planned so meticulously about how to win the World Cup, yet nobody planned for life after we had won it,” the 52-year-old tells Telegraph Sport.

“There was no succession planning whatsoever. That hasn’t been England’s specialist subject for the last 21 years, has it? That’s since Clive Woodward left the building, to be honest, and nobody takes culpability or accountability for that, so who knows where to point the finger.”

‘The workload was phenomenal’

A horror trot of injuries meant that Jonny Wilkinson did not win another England cap until 2007. Other stalwarts retired from playing straight away. Dallaglio suggests some were “in and out mentally” because of the demands placed upon them.

“We’d been at it continuously for three years and I was back playing [for Wasps] the following week,” he adds. “We went on to win the European Cup and the Premiership that year, so it was an incredible 12 months. But then I was named England captain and we went to the southern hemisphere… and got thumped by New Zealand twice and Australia.

“I feel like a lot more could have been done to [help us] transition back into rugby, because the workload was phenomenal. I ended up retiring from international rugby in 2004 because you get to a point where you’re burnt out and fed up. I came back for the 2005 Lions tour and broke my leg in 20 minutes.”

When the time did come for Dallaglio to bow out completely in 2008, relief was among the strongest feelings. He is, however, mildly perplexed that only five members of the 2003 squad – Mike Catt, Richard Hill, Dorian West, Trevor Woodman and Joe Worsley – are still working in management or coaching roles for senior teams at elite level. A sixth, Danny Grewcock, is affiliated to the Bristol Bears academy as well as Clifton College.

“If I’m honest, I was excited about going back into work – learning to read is underrated,” Dallaglio jokes. “I can’t speak for Ben [Cohen], but he was younger than the majority of the squad. I do think that if all of us, including the RFU, had their time again, they would do things a bit differently.

“Matt Dawson has made the point that the biggest sadness was that very few of the group, which clearly has a lot of intellectual property about winning and rugby, have anything to do with the game itself. That’s naive at best, and it’s also because the pathways towards staying in the game didn’t exist as they do now.

“There are lots of different ways of looking at the lens of 2003. I’m a more glass half-full man than half-empty. The World Cup gave each member of the England squad an enormous amount of success and exposure and a lot of players have done well off the back of it. That’s not me making light of anyone’s situation. Everyone’s different.

“You wouldn’t have ever imagined that Martin Johnson would only coach England for four years, without being given the support system around him to make him a better coach – although, ironically, he was the one person who did win a Six Nations before that World Cup.”

‘Our generation was more curious’

Casting his eye across the opening weekend of Champions Cup action, Dallaglio applauds Glasgow Warriors for delivering the most convincing statement in a 38-19 thumping of Sale Sharks.

He believes Tom Willis, integral to Saracens’ 27-5 defeat of the Bulls, will have reminded Steve Borthwick of his England credentials. Dallaglio, now part of the punditry team on Premier Sports, which is showing all 12 Champions Cup games live this weekend, is a “massive fan” of Ben Earl, yet notes that England’s incumbent No 8 is being used far more often as a flanker by Mark McCall.

Speaking more generally, one trait that Dallaglio would encourage in modern players is independence of thought. Having traded a job as a chartered surveyor for full-time rugby union upon the advent of professionalism, he admits that this came more naturally to him and his peers.

“We were all faced with that question; do we give up the Monday to Friday job, with rugby on a Tuesday and a Thursday as a bit of fun, to be a professional?” Dallaglio finishes. “I did, a lot of colleagues didn’t, either because they didn’t think they were good enough or because that life wasn’t for them. The early days of professional rugby were interesting, to say the least.

“Nigel Melville’s first question to me as coach [at Wasps] was: ‘How many days a week do you think we should get everyone in?’ I replied: ‘Well I think Saturday is quite important, let’s work backwards from there.’ I do think that now players take what they’re told as the right thing to do. Our generation was a little more curious.

“When a coach told me to do a certain drill, I’d say: ‘With the greatest respect, where did you learn that? Because you were a carpenter last week.’ The game has moved on massively in terms of player welfare, injury management and concussion, but that shouldn’t mean that players should stop being curious, because they’re the ones that have to go out on the field and deliver.”

Lawrence Dallaglio is part of the Premier Sports team bringing all 12 fixtures live from the Investec Champions Cup’s second round. Tune in from 7.30pm on Friday night as Sale Sharks v Racing 92 kicks off another big weekend all live on Premier Sports.