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Lion Luke Cowan-Dickie joins Garry Ringrose as major tour doubt

Luke Cowan-Dickie of British & Irish Lions leaves the pitch with an injury during the tour match between AUNZ XV and the British & Irish Lions at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

The British and Irish Lions’ preparations for the first Test have suffered a fresh blow after hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie was stretchered off during Saturday’s bruising encounter with the Australia and New Zealand Invitational XV in Adelaide.

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The 32-year-old Sale Sharks hooker looked in serious trouble following a heavy head knock sustained during a collision with the hip of a charging AUNZ ball-carrier early in the first half.

He received lengthy treatment on the field before being removed from play on a cart.

Cowan-Dickie is now a major doubt for the remainder of the tour as he will now almost certainly face return to play protocols that will likely end his participation in the series.

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Cowan-Dickie’s early departure saw Ronan Kelleher pressed into action.

The incident adds to a mounting list of injury concerns for head coach Andy Farrell, with Garry Ringrose also now a doubt after he sat out training this week following the win over the Brumbies.

The Irish Independent report that Ringrose has suffered a suspected head injury. Ringrose scored his third try of the tour as the Lions secured a fourth win in Australia with a 36-24 victory over the Super Rugby semi-finalists in Canberra, but appeared to take a knock in contact late on in the 74th minute.

Toulouse fullback Blair Kinghorn is already undergoing a scan on a knee issue sustained against the Brumbies midweek and Elliot Daly and Tomos Williams have already been ruled out of the tour altogether, following in-game injuries picked up against Aussie Super Rugby sides.

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Owen Farrell, who only joined up with the squad last Friday following Daly’s injury, was named among the replacements for the clash and received whistles and jeers from the stadium as he came on at 49 minutes.

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JW 1 hour ago
New report details source of Ardie Savea's All Blacks frustrations

Yeah it’s hard to be critical of Razor but of choices in his first year of the loosies he constantly played Ardie at 8. It would seem that was always the plan and that Hoskins was surplas to requirements (7, with Dalton then Cane, as was fairly happy with but understand the calls to drop Cane for his last test, along with TJ, and 6 was shared around nicely I thought) and he didn’t have the alround game of Ardie to simply overtake him at 8 (and use Ardie elsewhere). Of course he did that exact thing next year, too late for HS. Then last year 7 was fine if though the same problem was brought about by using Ardie (always leaves a component of a back three missing) there so often stopping Dalton from getting opportunities. At 6 Parker just had one or two too many games for me but 8 was shuffled around nicely, even if I don’t know why Lakai was thought to be the key there.

Of course a lot of rotation was brought about by, you guesed it, injury, still. Now to be fair to Razor, in reality we have no idea if he had to manage Ardie this way, based on NZRs desires with his contract (we have seen them move heaven and earth to retain him), and if he benched him often whether that would have caused him to leave or not. Or even that Hoskins would have accepted a jersey unless it was with a single digit on it, and a regular pick, as he had had to work his way back to the team without a big bump in his contract (of loosing AB selection early on) of other people his standing, so he also might have still put his family and therefor more over the jersey.



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