Hepher praises Cowan-Dickie claims
By Mark Stevens
2/2/22
Ali Hepher insists Luke Cowan-Dickie has all the qualities to captain England, should England head coach Eddie Jones look to the Exeter Chiefs man as an option during this season’s Guinness Six Nations Championship.
With Owen Farrell and Courtney Lawes both ruled out of this weekend’s Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland, Jones knows he has a choice to make in terms of who will lead his side into battle at BT Murrayfield.
Sale Sharks flanker Ben Curry and Leicester Tigers prop Ellis Genge are both options being considered by the Australian, but so too is that of Cowan-Dickie, who has taken on the captaincy role at the Chiefs this season.
Having become a more influential figure both on and off the field, both for club and country, Hepher had no hesitation in pressing the claims of the Cornishman.
“Look, you don’t get to captain your country by chance,” said the Chiefs head coach. “If he did get it, and I don’t know, it would be huge for him. The thing with Luke is he won’t get carried away with it, he won’t take it for granted or anything. You’ll get the same energy and enthusiasm and spirit on the field, so I don’t think it will affect him either way.
“He has said already he will just crack on whether he is the skipper or not, but he has done really well. Over the last couple of years, he has really matured into that role. He skippers the side here (at Exeter) very well.
“He demands a high standard of training and performance, so he is a very good leader in the sense that he will put himself out for every training session and he will fight and be competitive within every training session. It would be a huge honour for him but something he would thoroughly deserve if he gets it.
“They have gone fantastically well here,” added Hepher about the four Exeter players still in the mix for England selection. “I’m glad they are pressing their international claims and certainly there is a few of them starting to establish themselves as mainstays of that England team which is great to see.
“Plus, Sam is starting to get more recognition and get more involvements. Hopefully, that bodes well for the future. And Jack certainly fully deserves his call up because his performance is fantastic for us and he is sort of right back up to his best. We’ll look forward to seeing them, seeing how they perform on the top stage.”
One Chief who won’t feature for England this weekend is lock Jonny Hill, who is still working on overcoming a stress fracture in his leg.
The 27-year-old was an England starter in all three of his country’s matches across the Autumn Nations Series but he hasn’t played since suffering a stress fracture to his lower leg/high ankle during Exeter’s narrow Premiership loss at Harlequins last month.
England admitted at their Tuesday media briefing that Hill had yet to feature in full contact training and hopes that he could still be involved in this weekend’s Six Nations opener were extinguished later that evening when Jones announced a reduced 29-strong squad that excluded the 14-cap Test player.
“As he left us he was really touch and go and they [England] would have done really well to get him out there and play,” reckoned Hepher at the club’s weekly media briefing. “They have obviously done what they could do with him and monitored him and tried to give it as much treatment as possible but he hasn’t quite made it.
“I’m not sure exactly whether he will be fit for the following week (versus Italy February 13). I’m not even sure whether he comes back to us or stays in camp, but if he comes back to us he will get the best possible treatment and he will be back as soon as possible.”