Jamie George: England squad will ‘make sure’ Luke Cowan-Dickie is OK after error

Jamie George insists England will rally around Luke Cowan-Dickie after he conceded the penalty try that helped Scotland to a dramatic Calcutta Cup victory at Murrayfield.

Cowan-Dickie apologised to fans for slapping a Finn Russell cross-field kick forward into touch, denying Darcy Graham the chance to score, and referee Ben O’Keeffe duly punished England.

On top of the seven points awarded to Scotland, the Lions hooker was sent to the sin-bin as a 17-10 lead became 17-17 before Russell eventually landed the decisive penalty.

“Luke’s disappointed. It was a difficult situation,” said George, who replaced Cowan-Dickie at hooker.

“If you actually look at the amount of work Luke did to get to where the ball was, not many hookers in world rugby can do that and none of us are overly comfortable under the high ball.

“He’s a tough player and a great person. He’ll come back and be better than ever, I’m sure. The responsibility within the group is to make sure he’s OK.

“He’s going to be beating himself up, of course he is. But it isn’t his fault, it isn’t his fault whatsoever.

“There were lots of other opportunities for us to win that game and to stretch the game out, take it beyond a seven-point game. The front row came on and conceded a scrum penalty also, which we don’t like.

“It’s certainly not because of him that we lost, by any stretch of the imagination. He’ll be disappointed but we’ll come around him because we’re a tight-knit group and that’s what we do.”

While Cowan-Dickie’s defensive blunder placed England in an awkward position, there was still ample opportunity to regain the initiative in a match they dominated in most departments.

Four reset scrums in overtime offered the platform to seize a dramatic victory but it