Cowan-Dickie hobbles off as Chiefs win again
Hooker will be assessed today ahead of Jones announcing his next England squad
LUKE Cowan-Dickie gave England cause for concern when he limped out of Exeter’s 27-23 victory at Wasps after rolling his left ankle, with Eddie Jones announcing his squad for the autumn internationals today.
Hooker Cowan-Dickie, who started England’s last two Six Nations matches this year and two of the Lions’ Tests in South Africa, was treated on the field for three minutes before leaving it unaided having landed hard on his left knee after a tackle and catching his ankle awkwardly.
Exeter head coach Rob Baxter said the 28-year old would have his ankle protected by a moon boot before being assessed today, adding that it was too early to say whether he would be fit for England’s opener against Tonga at Twickenham next month.
“It was not good to see Luke coming off because he is as tough as they come,” said Exeter’s assistant coach Ali Hepher. “We do not know anything at the moment and we will see how it settles down after the weekend.”
Exeter moved to third in the table with their third successive victory of the season, but they made hard work of it after talking a nine-point lead inside 25 minutes and looking comfortable.
“One of the things we have spoken about is not taking a breath and drawing back after we have put ourselves in a good position,” said Hepher. “It was something we lapsed into last season, not least the play-off against Sale and the final against Harlequins.
“We were disappointed with the way we played in the final 10 minutes of the first half and we talked about it during the break. The response was good: we showed a lot of fight and found a way to win. We are getting there after a slow start to the season but we have to back it up at the weekend against London Irish.
“It may have been a bit ugly and not necessarily perfect, but we fought it out and I liked how our spirit came through to get the win.
“If we’re being honest, that wasn’t there a few weeks ago, but it is now. However, what we have to do moving forward is be a bit more clinical in what we do.
“We’ve got a little bit of momentum behind us and we’re moving in the right direction.
“There are still things we need to work on and things we need to get better at. We’ll look at that on Monday and, hopefully, we will be better again next week [against London Irish].”
Man of the match Sam Simmonds, who took his tally of tries to 10 in his last 10 Premiership matches, felt Exeter made it hard for themselves after taking the lead.
“We sat back, thinking it was easy, but we should have known this is a hard place to come after our last two visits here,” the number eight said. “They can attack from everywhere but we were happy with the second half, although we should have had a few more tries.”
Wasps head coach Lee Blackett suffered more injury woe when hooker Dan Frost, making his first start for the club, was led from the field after being treated for more than five minutes for a knock to the head.
“I could not fault the effort of the side,” said Blackett. “They kept battling and while we conceded four tries, the defensive effort was such that it did not feel like that.”