West Country return could be on the cards for Luke Cowan-Dickie

Luke Cowan-Dickie is on the Bristol Bears’ radar as the England and British & Irish Lions hooker seeks a return to his West Country roots, ending a three-year exile in the North-West with Gallagher PREM rivals Sale Sharks.

Truro-born Cowan-Dickie, 32, joined the Sharks in July 2023, after a move to Montpellier, following the 2023 Rugby World Cup, fell through and is closing in on 50 appearances for Alex Sanderson’s side.

He has another year left on his contract, but wants to move closer to his family, with his partner and son still based in the Exeter area, where he played 150 games for the Chiefs before moving to the Sharks.

Six years ago, Cowan-Dickie was seen as the best hooker in the world before a torrid two-year spell of neck, shoulder, and arm injuries, but he started two of England’s Six Nations games against Scotland and Ireland, and came off the bench in the other three.

The Bears have been quiet in the transfer market ahead of next season after raiding West Country rivals Bath for Ethan Staddon, Cornish Pirates for Louie Sinclair and Ealing Trailfinders for Tobi Wilson.

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They do have a hooker heading to Ashton Gate after snapping up Sol Moody from Exeter Chiefs, after he scored 15 tries in 19 games on loan at the Pirates, to add competition for Gabriel Oghre, Harry Thacker and Tomas Gwilliam.

Even though the deal is far from completed, it’s very attractive from the Bears’ point of view as Cowan-Dickie is an EQP, which Pat Lam admitted on his weekly media call this week, he is having problems maintaining because of the vast number of injuries his side are getting.

“The EQP numbers are one of our biggest issues, and I’ve never had an issue in all my time here, but we have this year, with the amount of English guys that were injured, it affected our EQP.

“You have to average 15 over the season, and we’re below that at the moment. So I’m trying to catch up on that. In some games, I need to make sure I have more than 15 English players on the field,” said Lam.