The England verdict on Schickerling, their Namibian-born tighthead

England forwards coach Richard Cockerill has given his verdict on Patrick Schickerling, the 23-year-old uncapped Namibian-born tighthead who made eight appearances in the Championship this season for Cornish Pirates while on loan from Exeter.

It was February 2020, just before the original lockdown shut down the 2019/20 season, that the prop made a Premiership Cup debut for Exeter and he went on to make eleven Gallagher Premiership appearances and five more in the Heineken Champions Cup this season for Rob Baxter's side after he returned from his loan spell at Cornish at the start of the 2021/22 second-tier campaign.   

He was initially called into the England squad for last week’s three-day training camp in Teddington, a gathering that also featured uncapped Wasps tighthead Biyi Alo. 

It was Schickerling who got the call to return for this week’s match week preparations at Pennyhill to face the Barbarians, England including him as one of four tightheads in their squad along with the 20-cap Will Stuart of Bath and the two-cap pair of Harlequins’ Will Collier and Newcastle’s Trevor Davison.  

A tighthead vacancy is up for grabs with Kyle Sinckler not touring Australia this summer and the rookies behind Stuart have been jostling for attention ahead of Friday’s announcement of the team to face the Barbarians ahead of the tour squad selection. 

Asked what impact the little-known Schickerling has made, England assistant Cockerill said: “He has come in and has worked really hard. He is pretty raw but huge amount of potential. A good lad, has a really good attitude for getting on with his work and there is a huge potential for him in the future because he has trained well, has a great attitude and that tighthead prop berth is something that we need more depth in and that is the challenge and opportunity for everyone hopefully this week. He’s good, really impressed with him.”

Schickerling has been in camp with Collier, the 31-year-old last capped by England on the 2017 Argentina tour. His form as the bedrock of the Harlequins scrum under Adam Jones was favourably commented on all season. “Will has been fantastic for Quins, probably one of the best scrummagers in the Premiership,” agreed Cockerill. 

“He now has the opportunity to go and prove himself and push himself forward for selection, not only for the weekend but for Australia, along with Will Stuart, Trevor Davison, Schickerling.  There is an opportunity there for someone to take that role behind Will Stuart, who is going to step up and take that next role. There is obviously Joe Heyes (of Leicester) potentially to come back in there. 

“It’s starting to build a bit of depth in that position and it’s down to those guys then to take the opportunity them isn’t it and really grasp it and force themselves into that squad for Australia and into the next 18 months to the World Cup.”