Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
NZ NZ

'He's a hard bugger, I knew when he went down he'd done something bad'

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Dan Mullan/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

Jack Nowell has wished Luke Cowan-Dickie, his Exeter and England pal, well after it was confirmed on Thursday that the hooker will play no further part in this year’s Guinness Six Nations. The forward injured his knee during last Saturday’s round three win over Wales and the Chiefs have now said that an operation will be needed to mend the ligament damage.

ADVERTISEMENT

Nowell and Cowan-Dickie had been thick as thieves this past month, enjoying each other’s company as they ground out the miles getting up and down to London from Devon for their England engagements. 

Check out the recent interview Cowan-Dickie did on RugbyPass Offload from the car with Nowell slumbering alongside him on their way home from the airport after the round two England win in Italy.  

Video Spacer

Jack Nowell, Ryan & Max on England Camp, Six Nations and Post Match Beers & Feeds | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 23

Jack Nowell joins us this week to give us an insight into England camp pre and post the Guinness Six Nations game against Wales. He tells Max and Ryan what’s changed in camp since he was last involved and how the squad is prepping for their next game against Ireland. We also hear about the best post-match feeds around the rugby world, how some of the England squad recently got trapped in a lift and just how much the guys enjoy a post-match beer in the dressing room.

Video Spacer

Jack Nowell, Ryan & Max on England Camp, Six Nations and Post Match Beers & Feeds | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 23

Jack Nowell joins us this week to give us an insight into England camp pre and post the Guinness Six Nations game against Wales. He tells Max and Ryan what’s changed in camp since he was last involved and how the squad is prepping for their next game against Ireland. We also hear about the best post-match feeds around the rugby world, how some of the England squad recently got trapped in a lift and just how much the guys enjoy a post-match beer in the dressing room.

Now, though, Nowell no long has his friend along for this week’s training camp in Bristol, an absence that will continue for the remaining England games versus Ireland and France. “I’m gutted for him,” said Nowell when asked by RugbyPass at an England media briefing for his reaction to Cowan-Dickie’s injury setback. 

“He struggled a little bit with injury, a little bit like myself, but he is a very similar sort of player. He gets in the mix, in the thick of it quite often, and he is a hard bugger so I knew when he when down he had done something pretty bad. He normally doesn’t stay down.

“I know he will come back from it. I know he is for an operation in the next few days. I knew he had a few niggles at the start of the season as well, he got back from his ankle and he definitely got his place in the England squad – he is part of the leadership group now and is playing pretty much every week and is an unbelievable player, so to have that in your side is always very beneficial to the team.

ADVERTISEMENT

“He had got to this stage where he was playing some of his best rugby but unfortunately that is rugby. I know how it goes as well. You don’t always have the luck on your side. The plan is for him to be back towards the end of the season, which is good for Exeter, but I am sure he will definitely be back for the summer tour.”

England are bound for Australia in a few months, by which stage Nowell will hope to have a few more Test matches under his belt after getting into the team last month for the first time since October 2019. He was given just the dying minute off the bench in the round one Six Nations game at Scotland and was then concussed early in the round two match in Italy. 

However, the stars aligned last Saturday in London and he played the full 80 in the round three win over Wales, his first full-duration Test outing since the March 2019 championship draw with Scotland. “Massive,” he said when asked what it meant to him to play the entire match. “I was so gutted in that Italy game because I had finally got the nod to start and to play and I was right, this is the game in which I can really rip into. 

“There turned out to be quite a bit of space for running rugby, especially the way we are playing at the moment as a team. To go off after ten minutes I was gutted but Eddie (Jones) said straight after the game it was fine, we will get you back fit, just keep your head down and keep grafting. To get the nod again last week against Wales at Twickenham was awesome and to get the 80 was even better. 

ADVERTISEMENT

“I had just been desperate to get back involved, have an England shirt on and especially to play at Twickenham as well, I had my family there and it was packed out as well which made all the difference. I was relieved but more buzzing to actually have done it.”

Jones last month described Nowell as being in his best shape since way back in 2016 and the winger agreed with that assessment. “I think so. If I’m honest I struggled with sessions and training, not just for the country but at the club as well just to get myself going. I was 10kgs heavier than what I am now and I was always in a lot of pain, so that didn’t make it better for me. 

“By losing the weight I am feeling fit, feeling fresh, so it makes a massive difference in terms of the sessions and how I can perform in the sessions. I always knew that for me to get back Eddie wanted me to be back bouncy, to be sharp and to use my footwork. It has certainly helped me. 

“I have gone away from the gym side of it. It is hard when you are in rehab for such a long time to try and remember that your job is to play rugby, not to lift weights, so I am very happy with where I am at at the moment but I know I have got a bit more work to do.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Join free

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | Episode 6

Sam Warburton | The Big Jim Show | Full Episode

Japan Rugby League One | Sungoliath v Eagles | Full Match Replay

Japan Rugby League One | Spears v Wild Knights | Full Match Replay

Boks Office | Episode 10 | Six Nations Final Round Review

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | How can New Zealand rugby beat this Ireland team

Beyond 80 | Episode 5

Rugby Europe Men's Championship Final | Georgia v Portugal | Full Match Replay

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

44 Go to comments
FEATURE
FEATURE Andy Christie: 'Diversity breeds strength in a group rather than weakness' Andy Christie: 'Diversity breeds strength in a group rather than weakness'
Search