Lions call can help Exeter Chiefs centre Henry Slade get over World Cup heartache

SERIAL medal winner Henry Slade has vengeance on his mind as he enters the New Year aiming to secure a Lions spot for this summer's tour of South Africa.

England boss Eddie Jones wants record numbers of Red Rose wannabes on the plane to the Rainbow Nation and in-form inside-centre Slade is one of the names in the frame after achieving a clean sweep of trophies for club and country in a remarkable end to last year.

However, Slade admits England's World Cup final loss the Springboks in Yokohama in 2019 still leaves him feeling desolate, so the chance to make partial amends by putting South Africa to the sword on home soil is hugely appealing to the ambitious Exeter star.

Slade, 27, told The Rugby Paper: “Eddie mentioned how he wanted to see a lot of us in the Lions squad and it would be awesome if we could get a lot of boys down there.

“Jack Nowell got picked from Exeter last time and that was brilliant, so hopefully we can have a few more this time because we've got some high-quality international players at Chiefs.

“We're all trying to put ourselves forward for that because it's the pinnacle to be selected for the Lions and, personally, I'd love to have another crack at South Africa.

“I saw an article from Anthony Watson saying he'd never get over losing the 2019 World Cup final to them and that's a pretty accurate assessment, to be honest.

“I sometimes think about it and I'm just as gutted about it now as I was back then so that will stay with me forever.

“Maybe we'll get another chance in 2023 but that's a long way in the future still, so in the meantime I'll be trying hard to get on that Lions tour.”

Meanwhile, Slade has blasted the critics who branded England's kickchase tactics ‘boring' during their march to the Six Nations and Autumn Nations Cup titles.

Slade, who backed-up Exeter's memorable Premiership and Champions Cup ‘double' with Test success, believes Eddie Jones' side performed exactly as required in order to banish their World Cup blues and lay a solid foundation for this year's Six Nations. He said: “If people are complaining when you're winning then it's hard to know what to say really.

“If you get out there in a game and it's pissing down with rain and you're trying to run the ball from your 22, you're going to get found out and messed up and you're going to lose rugby matches.

“I find it strange that people criticise a team for winning. I understand people want to see running rugby but sometimes conditions and situations just don't allow for that.

“At times we did play some rugby but we probably never got the recognition for that, and although you did see a lot of kicking, people probably didn't see the rest of the hard work with what's going into the chase or the defence on the back of that.”

Slade added: “Rugby's a game where you need all facets to be good and you can't just have an attack because if you let in more points than you score, you lose. Winning is built on defence and a strong setpiece and this is the way the game is at the minute.

“With the wintry conditions as well, it just played massively into our hands to be playing without the ball. In most of the games if it wasn't raining at the time, it had been raining and it was still wet so it just meant that the team which was going to put pressure on the other team better, defended better and had a stronger set-piece was going to win.

“The fact we won all our autumn games was largely down to our defence. People are getting pretty picky if they're complaining about winning a tournament.”

With the Six Nations looming, Slade said: “We're always trying to improve our attack and it's definitely going in the right direction. We're able to do things very well in training, it's just about doing the right things at the right times during games – and conditions largely dictate that.”

After sitting out Exeter's most recent two matches while resting, Slade returns to training this week fully refreshed after a year in which his quadruple success on the field was complemented by the birth of his first child in August.

Slade reflected: “It's been full-on and it's been nice to get some time off ahead of another manic few months coming up. It's going to be pretty relentless for the rest of the season now so I've taken my rest while I can and will look forward to getting back in.

“2020 was un unforgettable year for a number of reasons. My daughter was born, which was an unbelievable experience and still is every day, while rugby-wise winning three trophies on successive weekends was something I'll probably never get to do again – then to win the Autumn Nations Cup and make it four trophies in a year was pretty nuts.

“It was an awesome thing to achieve, although it would have been sweeter if we'd had the fans there.”

Among Slade's shorterterm goals is a burning desire to help defending champions Exeter fight back into Champions Cup contention after their recent tie with Toulouse was called off due to Covid – a scenario that cost Chiefs the chance of five crucial points.

Slade added: “It was massively frustrating to pick up zero points for that because we were feeling pretty confident at the time. I've never been to Toulouse so I'd been looking forward to going over there and putting in a really good performance.

“We'll be gunning for maximum points from our last two games and if we can get to 15, we believe we have a chance. It will be hugely frustrating if that's not enough but we're not giving up on Europe yet.”

By NEALE HARVEY