Luke Cowan-Dickie inching closer to Exeter exit

With Exeter Chiefs having already extended the contracts of Henry Slade and Jack Nowell, as well as made the marquee addition of Stuart Hogg, it was inevitable there were going to have to be sacrifices elsewhere.

As the 2018/19 Gallagher Premiership season moves on, it’s beginning to look more and more like Luke Cowan-Dickie could be one of the players heading for the door at Exeter at the end of the season.

The hooker is in the final year of the contract he agreed in 2016 and, unsurprisingly, has been the subject of major interest from elsewhere in the Premiership.

Whilst the 25-year-old could yet agree terms with the Devon club and stay at Sandy Park, the situation has reached the point where it has become more likely that he is set to leave, with a RugbyPass source telling us that Leicester Tigers are the club that are leading the way for the player’s signature.

Leicester are keen to add competition to the international duo of Tom Youngs and Tatafu Polota-Nau and see Cowan-Dickie as the perfect complement to those two more experienced campaigners.

There are not the only club interested, however, with Worcester Warriors having made an impressive financial offer to Cowan-Dickie, one that surpasses that of Leicester’s, with the club from the West Midlands set to lose starting hooker Jack Singleton to Saracens this summer.

That said, RugbyPass understands that Cowan-Dickie’s motivations to move are not purely financial and that he is eager to put himself out of his comfort zone and push for England selection, something which has been made difficult for him in recent years due to the form of both Dylan Hartley and Jamie George.

Cowan-Dickie has been an influential part of Exeter’s rise in the Premiership over the last five years, but since making his senior England debut in 2015, he has only featured seven times for the national side, with all of those caps coming off the bench.

A fresh start and a new environment could be what pushes him to the next level and allows him to compete with George for the two jersey after the upcoming Rugby World Cup.

Watch: Cowan-Dickie’s international rival and teammate, Dylan Hartley, dissects England’s performance against Australia.