Henry Slade is sitting in reception at Sandy Park wearing a Christmas jumper with a fire-breathing dinosaur on the front. The Exeter’s squad’s festive meal is about to start and the mood is suitably convivial. The Chiefs have had a clutch of extraordinary last-gasp wins in recent weeks, all of them wrapped up by their talismanic centre. Devon’s local superhero can wear whatever seasonal cape he fancies.
His midwinter success is all the sweeter because of the crushing disappointment he suffered in August. Having been a midfield regular for England all year, the elegant Slade was unceremoniously dropped from the World Cup squad just before the tournament. Even now he has not entirely come to terms with it. “I don’t think I’m over it yet. It’ll be one of those things you never get over. To only have 10 minutes against Wales and be dropped the next day was frustrating. You work so hard throughout your career and I felt I was in my prime going into it. To not go was gutting and really disappointing.”
It says much about the 30 year old’s determination and class then that he has bounced back so impressively. Last month, having trailed by nine points with four minutes left, a booming penalty from 45 metres with the clock in the red delivered Chiefs a 25-24 win over Gloucester. “Before this year I’ve never really had a kick to win a game so that one was quite nice.”
A fortnight ago he kept his nerve again to slot a match-clinching angled conversion and edge out Toulon 19-18. “The whole place went silent, which was quite cool.” Last week his late interception try sealed another thrilling comeback victory over Munster. “It reaffirmed to us that you’re always in the game if you stay in the fight.”
And his reward from his teammates? Every time Exeter win a match their director of rugby, Rob Baxter, puts together a highlights montage for his players. Slade, in his 13th season at the club, features so frequently his involvements now prompt a pantomime chorus of boos from the rest of the squad. “I think it was Luke Cowan-Dickie who started it off. It’s a little joke that’s stuck for years now. I tell myself it’s because they’re getting bored of seeing me so often.”
His thousands of fans in the south-west would beg to differ. Not since the languid batting of David Gower has an Englishman made team sport look more graceful than does the left-footed Slade. His recurring problem has been the reluctance of certain coaches to embrace a more ambitious gameplan that would complement his array of talents. “Sometimes there’s a frustration but there’s also an understanding Test rugby is quite different and very high pressure. To not get picked is massively gutting but ultimately it’s about what the coaches are looking for.”
Slade has also had myriad other midfield partners – Sam Burgess, Elliot Daly, Jonathan Joseph, Owen Farrell, Piers Francis, Ollie Lawrence, Alex Lozowski, Joe Marchant, Ben Te’o et al – since his international debut in 2015 but featured only infrequently alongside Manu Tuilagi, with whom he felt a real connection. “If it wasn’t for Manu’s injuries we’d have hopefully started a fair bit more. Someone like Manu or Ollie Lawrence offer something very different from me but I think we end up working well together. You need someone to get the ball to the edge or to be a second playmaker and you need someone to get you over the gainline. I thought the way I used to balance with Manu was really good.”
Everything, though, is now up in the air again. While Marchant, who has moved to Stade Français, and Farrell are out of the Six Nations equation, there are assorted contenders for the No 13 jersey, ranging from Lawrence and Daly to Northampton’s Tommy Freeman and Harlequins’ Will Joseph.
Slade has been in contact with the national head coach, Steve Borthwick, but as of yet nothing is guaranteed. “We have spoken and it’s been very positive. But obviously you don’t know about selection until it happens. What I’ve been telling myself is to attack it in the same way I did before I’d even played for England. Which is focusing on what I can control and playing well for Exeter rather than looking too far ahead.”
There is also the small matter of the Rugby Football Union’s 25 new central contracts – “I’ve heard some people have been offered them but I haven’t been offered anything” – plus the fact his Exeter contract expires this summer. A number of former Chiefs are enjoying their new lives abroad – “Jack Nowell says his kids are doing all their homework in French which is pretty impressive” – but in an ideal world Slade would prefer to stay.
“If I’m going to be in and around the England picture that’s going to be a massive carrot to make me want to stay. I’ve been here my whole career and I’m really happy here. I’ve no real intention of going elsewhere if I don’t need to. I guess they’ve just got to pay me enough!”
The other key element is the enjoyment. “There are so many young lads with so much energy it’s quite infectious.” He is currently deriving from Exeter’s feelgood renaissance.
Saturday’s game against Leicester, set to attract a club-record attendance of 15,000, will be the youthful Chiefs’ latest test of character but, after more than a decade as a diabetic pro sportsman, Slade has long since learned how to cope with temporary highs and lows. Earlier in his career his routine would include 10-12 fingerprick tests a day but he now wears a Dexcom G7 sensor which has been a gamechanger. “It’s the size of a 2p coin and monitors my blood sugars. It makes things so much easier. I don’t know how I did it before.”
And with two daughters aged three and three months respectively – “fatherhood is amazing” – to occupy him, all that is left to complete the perfect Slade Christmas is his looming fancy-dress lunch and the opportunity to add to his 56 Test caps next year.
“Obviously I always want to play for England. It is frustrating how it finished in the summer. I would love to get back in and do what I can. But selection is not in your control. If I play well and it’s good enough to get another shot that’s amazing. If not, that’s what’s meant to be. But it won’t stop me trying as hard as I can.”
