Nic Dolly: Leicester Tigers hooker accepts England cap does not guarantee club place

Nic Dolly won his first England cap as a replacement against South Africa at Twickenham

Leicester Tigers hooker Nic Dolly will not make the mistake of taking his place for granted despite making his England debut earlier this month.

They have won all 10 games this season and Dolly contributed six tries before his international call-up.

Tigers return to Premiership action on Sunday with a home game against reigning champions Harlequins.

"They're a brilliant side, but for me the main thing first of all is to get selected," he told BBC Radio Leicester.

"I can worry about what I can do to impact the team, but right now it's just about training hard, hopefully get selected and then put my best foot forward on the field."

Dolly has only started four of the seven matches he has appeared in so far this season, with head coach Steve Borthwick making full use of his squad.

But his try tally is only exceeded by Max Malins of Saracens, who has eight, and matched by fellow hooker, London Irish's Agustin Creevy.

Dolly's rise to international honours has been meteoric this season, having joined Leicester from Championship club Coventry in March after being released by Sale in 2020.

"The brilliant thing here is I have world-class front rowers with me every week and going into England, it was nice to see some other world-class front rowers, pick their brains and see if they had any different theories or tricks of the trade," he said.

"I couldn't have predicted it (international call-up) to be this short. I always had aspirations, even when I got let go from Sale, that I was going to get back in the Premiership and to play at the highest level, that being England, but you couldn't write it any faster.

"For me, it's just about trying to work hard and good things come when you work hard."