LONG READ Do England need to start worrying about their hooker depth ahead of the World Cup?

Sometimes, you only begin to notice how old a player is when things start to go wrong.

England’s lineout against Ireland was not entirely Luke Cowan-Dickie’s fault. It certainly never looks great when a hooker throws the ball straight to the opposition while the rest of his team-mates appear oblivious, but that kind of error marks a collective failure, a breakdown in communication between thrower and caller and (assuming that England planned to have one) a receiver.

After what proved to be Cowan-Dickie’s final lineout before being unceremoniously hooked off after 29 minutes, his throw to the tail went over the outstretched fingertips of Ollie Chessum, not an easy feat when you consider that Chessum is 6ft 7in and lifted into the air.

Chessum immediately made eye contact with Cowan-Dickie after landing on the ground, with the hooker holding out his arms, an expression that translated to “what was that?”, as the pair ran to get into position in England’s defensive line. It embodied England’s set-piece and Cowan-Dickie’s personal frustrations.

Steve Borthwick said after the defeat to Scotland that he had backed certain players to deliver a performance against Ireland after the way the previous week had gone. Cowan-Dickie being penalised for a no-arms tackle had not helped England on a bad day at Murrayfield. Now here he was a week later, once more the starter, being withdrawn before the half-hour mark because “we’d had two lineouts very early in the game not go the way we wanted them to”, as Borthwick put it pragmatically.

Cowan-Dickie is 33 this summer. He will probably start again for England at some point, maybe even as soon as Rome, in what really would be a sign of unwavering faith in a player hailed for his physicality. Jamie George, who replaced Cowan-Dickie, is 35 and has already announced that he will retire after next year’s Rugby World Cup.

In terms of the rugby player life cycle, they are old. And yet England are currently banking on them both weathering the ups and downs or form and fitness to be there in 2027, partly because there are so few other viable candidates. Where, for example, is Theo Dan?

There was a period a decade ago where a narrative developed around when Eddie Jones would hand a first England start to George, at the time locked in as the replacement hooker behind the England captain, Dylan Hartley. It went on for so long that George ended up starting a Test for the British and Irish Lions – all three in fact on the 2017 tour of New Zealand – before he finally started a Test match for his country, after 19 caps as a replacement.

Since Cowan-Dickie returned to the fold in autumn of 2024, Dan made one appearance that autumn against New Zealand, one in the 2025 Six Nations against Ireland, and had two caps in Argentina over the summer

It was an extensive but undoubtedly effective apprenticeship, and when Dan emerged as a World Cup bolter for England back in 2023, Borthwick’s first year in charge, it felt as though the cycle was about to repeat itself with Dan learning from George, except with the benefit of them both playing for the same club at Saracens before Dan eventually succeeded his mentor. Cowan-Dickie missed that World Cup with a shoulder injury, making Jack Walker the third hooker in the group.

Dan has been a constant in England squads ever since, to the extent that he was awarded an Enhanced Elite Player squad contract by the Rugby Football Union in October 2024 when others – Freddie Steward, Sam Underhill, Chander Cunningham-South – missed out.

Since Cowan-Dickie returned to the fold in autumn of 2024, Dan made one appearance that autumn against New Zealand, one in the 2025 Six Nations against Ireland, and had two caps in Argentina over the summer, starting his first Test since the Bronze Final at the World Cup. It did not go well, forced off with a knee injury after England’s lineout had misfired and having been penalised for a high tackle. This season he has played only nine Test minutes, off the bench in the final game of the autumn against Argentina. His EPS deal was not renewed this season, making Dan the only player to lose that status.

Which is all a long way of saying, it feels impossible to know how good Dan is. England clearly like him enough to keep him around, just not enough to pick him.

Dan has real talent. When Saracens traveled to face Toulon in the Champions Cup last season he had the French TV commentators cooing over a brilliant run, beating three defenders, before offloading to set up a try. His work in the loose and over the breakdown is spoken of highly by coaches and team-mates.

A source described that carrying threat as Dan’s super strength, the pace and power he has combined with his footwork to beat defenders, to win the collision. He understandably in the past has been compared with Schalk Brits, the former Saracens and South Africa hooker who was a dangerous runner.

The knock on Dan, consistently, has been that his set-piece work is not up to the same standard, a theory boosted by how England’s lineout went in Argentina when George was rested for the second Test ahead of flying out to join the Lions in Australia, meaning that Dan came in for a rare start.

Dan is understood to have upped his review work around both his own processes and those of the opposition, taking the lessons from that and then diligently working on his own approach

Development for front-rowers in that area is a process, and you need live reps to hone your craft. During his early 20s, Dan missed about 15 months because of a major knee injury, valuable playing and training time you cannot get back.

The problem as a front-rower is that once the label of ‘not great at the set-piece’ is tied to you, it can be incredibly hard to remove.

Per a source, there has been no lack of hard work behind the scenes by Dan to kick on in those areas at Saracens. Simon Hardy, the former England lineout coach who was part of the national setup for many years and previously worked with a young George, has been brought in by Saracens to work on Dan’s throwing, with signs of progress.

Regarding the scrum, Dan is understood to have upped his review work around both his own processes and those of the opposition, taking the lessons from that and then diligently working on his own approach, the source added.

Are England seeing those improvements? Do they trust Dan enough to start a Test match in Rome with the team under pressure? There is a real chance that he may finish this block having trained with the squad for months without seeing a single minute on the field.

Outside of Dan there are a number of prospects, some older than others, all with a whole lack of experience: Walker, Curtis Langdon, Jamie Blamire, Nathan Jibulu, Kepu Tuipulotu. Of the lot it feels as though Tuipulotu is the most talented, a standout in recent years for the England Under-20s, with no real weakness across the many areas of his game. Strong in the set-piece and outstanding in open play.

All of a sudden it no longer feels like England can necessarily rely on two hookers in their mid-30s by the time they touch down in Australia next year.

Which raises its own question. If England are not going to play Dan, who has been involved now for almost three years with his playing time diminishing each season, then would this Six Nations not have been better spent having Tuipulotu train as the third hooker instead? Building up his experience and familiarity with the systems in the squad, before unleashing him imminently for what will probably be the start of a long Test career?

With Cowan-Dickie having been hooked and George a key part of England’s bench from a leadership perspective, all of a sudden it no longer feels like England can necessarily rely on two hookers in their mid-30s by the time they touch down in Australia next year. If there is a time to back Dan and see what he is capable of, then it has to be now.