Luke Cowan Dickie: 'I always look for the overthrows'

Exeter Chiefs hooker Luke Cowan Dickie made his first start for England in the first of the double header matches against Wales as part of their preparations for the upcoming Rugby World Cup.

Cowan Dickie told RugbyPass, “It was a first chance to get a hit-out, play a game, which we’ve all been waiting for. To come out on top, it was massive. A few of the boys got new caps, so we’re all buzzing for them, it was my first start and yeah, everyone was excited and happy.”

England triumphed at Twickenham with Cowan Dickie rounding off the first half by scoring the simplest of tries after a wayward overthrow from a Welsh line out on their own line. He said, “I always look for the overthrows. I just got lucky, it landed in my arms and was a good try.”

Given England’s recent ability to throw away games that they seem to have control of, it was a positive step in Eddie Jones’ road map to see a vast improvement in this area, following a resurgent period from Wales after half time.

Cowan Dickie commented, “We had a bit of a patch in the game where we were under the pump a little bit. We had a little chat under the posts and we definitely regained momentum and we came out on top of the game. There’s been games in the past where we haven’t quite got back on top. I think in this game there was a definite turn, and we capitalised on that and got a couple of points on the board.”

With the final whistle blown, attention turned immediately to England’s Rugby World Cup squad announcement taking place just twenty hours later, on Monday in Bristol. So what excitement is Cowan Dickie feeling ahead of finding out if he’s going to Japan?

Cowan Dickie replied, “For me personally, we’ve all done as well as we can up to this stage. We’ve trained as hard as we can. We’ve competed for positions. 23 of us got a chance to have a run out today so I think all the boys have put in as much work as they can and now the coaches have got to decide what their best 31 is and everyone’s just got to be happy with it. We’ve been working this hard now for, I don’t know how many weeks, running like I don’t know what! To get a chance to be on that plane, it would be a brilliant, a dream come true.”