The Exeter veteran England forgot is ‘ageing like a fine wine’

Henry Slade is playing like a man reborn, and on Saturday, he will make a seventh Premiership final appearance for a resurgent Exeter Chiefs.

Given his form, you have to wonder why England decided they could do without him during this year’s Six Nations, and Steve Borthwick has now drafted a South African centre, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, into their squad.

The heartening news for Slade is he has bounced back from a Borthwick snub before , responding to being left out of the 2023 World Cup by adding 17 more caps to reach 74.

And this season, with Exeter leaping from last year’s ninth place in the league to third and last week’s semi-final victory away to the champions Bath, Slade is “ageing like a fine wine”, according to Luke Cowan-Dickie, his long-time Exeter and England team-mate.

Cowan-Dickie and Slade made their Test debuts together against France in 2015. They also shared a world under-20 title and all six of the Prem finals Chiefs reached from 2016 to 2021, winning two.

Slade (right, tackling) is as good a defender as he is attacker in the 13 channel (Photo: Getty)

“Definitely he’s taken another step forward,” Cowan-Dickie told The i Paper this week. “He’s put in some top performances and it just looks like he’s had confidence. Exeter didn’t have the best season last year; this season maybe that’s brought his confidence back.”

Exeter’s head coach Rob Baxter was certainly happy to forgive Slade for a momentary glitch at Bath. “Our most experienced player, did the stupidest thing on the field, on the day,” a smiling Baxter said after a slap of the ball out of Ben Spencer’s hands that incurred a trip to sin-bin.

Baxter, of course, knows the qualities Slade has been giving Chiefs since his club debut, a few weeks after Cowan-Dickie’s, way back in 2012. “When you’ve won Premiership finals, you understand you can do it,” Baxter said at Bath. “You don’t limit yourself to thinking it’s not your day or not your year. He [Slade] is helping the lads believe that as well.”

In that 27-26 win, the left-footed Slade made sublime touchline kicks, and dovetailed with one of the Prem’s signings of the season, Exeter’s Australian No 12 Len Ikitau.

Slade has only played once for England this season (Photo: Getty)

Other factors in the Slade revival have been another newcomer, attack coach Dave Walder, loosening Exeter’s shackles. In pre-season, Slade said Exeter trained at “World Cup camp level”, and the man himself is keeping fit with hot and cold contrasts: saunas, ice baths, stretching and mobility.

“I’m 33 but I feel quicker, stronger and fitter than I’ve ever felt,” he told the For the Love of Rugby podcast.

Cowan-Dickie says Slade loves it at Exeter, and “to be fair they needed him, so they probably fought as hard as they needed to, to keep him there.”

He also admires his old friend for persevering though Type 1 Diabetes.

Cowan-Dickie adds: “I shared a room with him at the England hotel quite a while back, it was around 2.30 in the morning and he hadn’t got any sweets, and he was boiling the kettle for a hot chocolate, and woke me up. I give him stick about that. But all joking aside, it could be a massive excuse to make when you don’t feel well or things aren’t going well for you, but he doesn’t mention it.”

Slade has said that being conscious of his responsibility as a family man helped him address his OCD, partly triggered by suffering a broken leg at Wasps in 2015 when he felt he hadn’t tied a bootlace the right way.

And there have been other challenges, including “probably two or three seasons when he needed his shoulder doing, and he didn’t do it,” says Cowan-Dickie. “Still, his defence is up there, second to none. I tip my hat to his low chop tackles.”

For another assessment, The i Paper asked Luke Northmore, the Harlequins centre who has faced Slade seven times in the Prem, starting with the 2021 final.

They have also toured together for England, and the 29-year-old Northmore looked up to Slade from the Sandy Park stands as a teenager.

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“What he’s done and achieved, as a fellow Devon lad, I think it’s pretty special,” says Northmore.

“What separates ‘Sladey’ from the rest is he’s got the physical attributes of an outside centre, plus the hands of a fly-half. So in those wide channels, he can really manipulate defenders. His ability to make the right decision at the line is probably the best in the league at the moment. When he’s on the front foot, he can pretty much do anything he wants with the ball.

“You’ve seen more of a well-rounded game from that Exeter team. An extra string to their bow, now their backline is a lot more balanced, with an electric back three.”

Exeter now meet Northampton Saints in the final, having beaten Leicester Tigers and Saracens home and away, as well as Bath twice. It is another chance for Slade to showcase his talent…