Cowan-Dickie warns of Sharks

Exeter Chiefs hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie has declared his side’s Premiership trip to Sale Sharks tonight is one of the biggest games of their season.

The Chiefs still remember their record top-flight defeat to the Sharks at Sandy Park last season.

Although a lot has changed since that 55-12 defeat, tonight’s starting hooker Cowan-Dickie wants to help set the record straight.

More importantly, third-placed Chiefs want to re-establish their form in their first Premiership fixture for nearly three weeks – they beat La Rochelle twice in the European Challenge Cup over the last two weekends.

Cowan-Dickie said: “It’s a massive game and we’ve been talking all week about getting back into the Premiership after a couple of weeks off from it. It will be one of the biggest games of the season for us and hopefully we can come back on form, like we have been.

“We played them last year and they beat us quite comfortably, and that’s always in the back of your mind.

“Fair play to them for coming here and beating us by that many points. They got on top of us, and before we knew it they were 40 points ahead.

“Despite that, we’re not going there for revenge, it is more about going there to put our game on top of them. We want to continue our good form.”

Chiefs are going well in all three competitions and they are keen to ensure progress continues in the league, the LV= Cup and in Europe.

“I think these games probably are [season-defining],” said Cowan-Dickie. “We set ourselves targets each game, and a few of the boys have come back from some time off and look fresh.

“The last block of games was massive for us but we knew we could pick up a lot of league points. Now, because of where we are in the table, this next lot of games is very important,” he added.

“We want to make sure we stick to the top half of the table, or even the position we are in now.

“We want to go into the last block of games chasing our best-ever finish in the table. This point in the year is absolutely massive for us. But, having played Sale last year and lost by that much, we can only concentrate on them.”

Cowan-Dickie has also been pleased with his own recent form after reclaiming his place in the starting XV.

He said: “It has been really good to be back in the team. I haven’t been too lucky with injuries but I’ve come back at a good time and I’ve managed to get back in there.

“Hopefully, I can keep my place for a bit longer and keep performing. We’ll have to see how it goes from there.”