Luke Cowan-Dickie apologises to England fans over match-changing penalty try

The Exeter hooker was also yellow-carded for slapping a crossfield kick into touch to deny Scotland’s Darcy Graham a probable try

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Luke Cowan-Dickie has apologised to England fans after he conceded a penalty try to help Scotland retain the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield.

With England leading 17-10, Cowan-Dickie slapped a crossfield kick from Finn Russell forward into touch, denying Darcy Graham the opportunity to catch and score a probable try.

To add to England’s misery, the Exeter hooker was sent to the sin-bin before Russell added the decisive penalty to give Scotland a 20-17 victory in the Six Nations opener.

“Just want to apologise to all you supporters for today. I let myself and you guys down,” Cowan-Dickie said on social media.

“Every time I play for my country I want nothing more than to make you guys proud. Thanks for all the support. Looking forward to bouncing back next week!”

Eddie Jones insisted that England should blame themselves and not Cowan-Dickie after losing their opening Six Nations match for the third year in succession despite dominating play.

“Luke is disappointed, that happens in the moment. He played exceptionally well and he is very disappointed, but all the boys are supporting him,” head coach Jones said.

“We have only got ourselves to blame.

“We are massively disappointed that we lost and Scotland deserved to win.

“We dominated a lot of the game but didn’t get the points out of the domination.”