'Physically I've not seen too many better players. He's 6-feet-2, has bigger leg muscles than I do'
Ed Slater didn’t see professional rugby as a career when he grew up as a staunch Charlton Athletic fan with a passion for football, but a tour to Amsterdam with his local rugby club set him on a path to being one of the most respected and experienced locks in England. Currently isolated at home with his wife and three children, he is is focusing on the positives of quarantine as he heals his foot; and is quite happy to discuss learning from past mistakes, Gloucester and his career influences.
Slater spent over three months of the season out of action, but strongly believes he’ll be back fitter than ever. With the abundance of negativity during such a torrid time for the world, Slater has taken it upon himself to look at the positives.
The foot is nearly fully recovered, with Slater having returned to action before the COVID-19 onslaught. Gloucester have plenty to work on, but speaking to the 6-feet-6, 19-stone lock, the focus is put firmly on self-improvement.
“The reality is, when I broke my foot in November, it was around 14 weeks until I was back playing. A broken foot is one of those niggly injuries that takes ages to heal. You won’t see a fully healed bone in your foot for 12 months because of blood supply and weight you’re putting on it.
“When I came back I didn’t feel as fit as I could have been. It’s been massive for me to spend time on that and the physios have given me stuff to manage it.”
“It’s really difficult [to set aims] if you don’t know when you’re re-starting. That’s why the focus is on what we did last year and what went wrong. Rugby evolves really quickly and if you’re not constantly thinking about it then you can get left behind and we were a little behind the pace last season.”
With all of his success though comes thanks for the childhood friend who introduced him to the sport, after he initially started out in the round ball code.
“I played football until I was 15. I was fed up of the changing room environment. It was all about who you’d played for, had trials with and what boots you wore. My best mate at school at the time, who I’d said this to a few times, said come down to the local rugby club, and I turned up just in time for an U16s tour to Holland. It was great fun.
“I saw a different side to sport and it wasn’t hard to leave football behind after I came back from that tour.
“The mate who sent me to the club had played rugby since four or five, so when I turned up at Leicester about five years after starting the game, he was like ‘you’re an a******e, I’ve been playing my whole life’, but I have to thank him for starting rugby for me.”
The transition to rugby has given him the chance to work with some of the very best in the sport, most recently a certain Welsh wing sensation.
“Physically I’ve not seen too many better players [than Louis Rees-Zammit]. His raw pace is ridiculous. He’s 6-feet-2, has bigger leg muscles than I do, so he’s built solid. I know from experience that the older you get the more opportunities close up; people are aware of his pace now.
“’How is he going to change?’ is the conversation I’ve had with him. It’s great to burst on the scene and have people being scared of him, so not giving him the space. So, that’s his next progression, how does he keep all the physical attributes he’s got and make them work again for him as people will be a lot more wary of him now. If he can nail that he’s got a massive future ahead of him.
“We don’t have a huge amount of internationals here, so coming back to Gloucester keeps him on the ground a bit. Whilst he’s away and doing his bit with Wales we’re cracking away at Hartpury. The expectation is when you return from that you just get on with Gloucester mode.”
There’s not just the upcoming stars, but established World Cup winners to push the standards. Springbok Franco Mostert is now in his second season at Kingsholm. How does Slater react? He’s worked harder.
“It was his work rate that stood out and that drove me when he arrived, as well as being competition in my position. That made me assess where I was physically. I was a bit of a fridge around the pitch. I’ve had to lose weight and become more mobile as the years went by. He’s had a massive influence on me and how I play the game.
“Even when he turned up prior to the World Cup, I saw him as one of the top locks in the world and it pushed me to work harder. I looked at what he did around the pitch. That’s his x-factor, his work rate.”
Ed looks fondly back on his Leicester days, before the switch deal with Jonny May, and extends his gratitude to those who influenced his career.
“Richard Cockerill,” he says, “Mainly for driving up the standards expected of someone who was playing at Leicester and not giving an inch on that. There was no grey area, you either did it or didn’t and I had to get myself up to that standard very quickly.
“Cockers is the main person I learned a ridiculous amount from in terms of attitude.”
The 31-year-old, who represented the England Saxons still hasn’t completely given up on a full Test cap.
“It’s less thinking it’s never going to happen and more about how can I prolong this career as long as possible, be as fit as I can and play at a level I want to play at. If I can do that, be a decent enough player, and if they’re desperate enough for locks, then I can put my hand up. My priority is performing as well as I can for Gloucester.
“I feel with the quality we have we’ve got to be pushing Champions Cup and top four, and when it comes to semi-finals anything can happen. You just have to put yourself in the best position to make those knockout stages.
Rugby is a sport that’s constantly evolving, and looking to improve. Slater believes a second referee could be a useful next step.
“I’d like to see a second referee brought in, similar to rugby league, to police the breakdown and offside line a bit more. I think that could take pressure of the referee and the assistants.
“I don’t like anything that slows the ball down. I’d like to see if you get held up and into a maul that you have to release the player and the ball is fed back to the scrum-half. There’s basically no advantage then to holding a man up to create a maul and hopefully you’d see a change of tackle technique which you can deliver quicker ball from.”
He’s worked with plenty of talent, but who makes his list of best teammates?
“I was lucky enough at Leicester to play with a ridiculous amount of naturally talented players like Ben Youngs, George Ford or Manu Tuilagi. Those guys stick out massively. Thomas Waldrom at eight, Craig Newby stands out, Brad Thorn.”
The jokers in the team also lie warmly in his memories. “Mark Atkinson. He’s always on it, cracking jokes and he’s hard to get one over on. There’s also Fraser Balmain. He’s very, very dry and a cartoon character. Those two guys are great blokes to be around.”
Slater may be entering the autumn of his career, but you get the impression there is still plenty left in the tank of this engine room veteran.
Comments on RugbyPass
This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
34 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
2 Go to commentsBut here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.
15 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
15 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
1 Go to commentsThanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause
15 Go to commentsNo way. If you are trying to picture New Zealand rugby with an All Blacks mindset, there have been two factors instrumental to the decline of NZ rugby to date. Those are the horror that the Blues have become and, probably more so, the fixture that the Crusaders became. I don’t think it was healthy to have one team so dominant for so long, both for lack of proper representation of players from outside that environment and on the over reliance on players from within it. If you are another international side, like Ireland for example, sure. You can copy paste something succinct from one level to the next and experience a huge increase in standards, but ultimately you will not be maximizing it, which is what you need to perform to the level the ABs do. Added to that is the apathy that develops in the whole game as a result of one sides dominance. NZ, Super, and Championship rugby should all experience a boom as a result of things balancing out. That said, there is a lot of bad news happening in NZ rugby recently, and I’m not sure the game can be handled well enough here to postpone the always-there feeling of inevitable decline of rugby.
15 Go to commentsNo SA supporter miss Super Rugby - a product that is experiencing significant head wind in ANZ - the competition from rival codes are intense, match attendance figures are at a historical low and the negativity of commentators such as Kirwan and Wilson have accelerated the downward spiral in NZ. After the next RWC in 2027 sponsors will follow Qantas and start leaving in droves.
2 Go to commentsLike others, I am not seeing the connection between this edition of the Crusaders and the All Blacks future prospects under Razor. I think the analysis of the Crusaders attack recently is helpful because Razor and his coaching team used to be able to slot new guys in to their systems and see them succeed. Several of Razor’s coaches are still there so it would be surprising if the current attack and set piece has been overhauled to a great extent - but based on that analysis, it may have been. Whether it is too many new guys due to injuries or retirement or a failure of current Crusaders systems is the main question to be answered imo. It doesn’t seem relevant for the ABs.
15 Go to commentsharry potter is set in stone. he creates stability and finishes well. exactly what schmidt likes. he’s the ben smith of australian rugby. i think it could quite easily be potter toole and kellaway for the foreseeable future.
5 Go to commentsThis is short sighted from Clayton if you ask me, smacks of too much preseason planning and no adaptability. What if DMac is out for a must win match, are they still only going to bring their best first five and playmaker on late in the game? Trusting the game to someone who wasn’t even part of planning (they would have had Trask pinned in as Jacomb preseason). Perhaps if the Crusaders were better they would not have done this, but either way imo you take this opportunity to play a guy you might need starting in a final rather than having their 12th game getting comfortable coming off the bench.
1 Go to commentsThanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.
21 Go to commentsWhat a load of bollocks. The author has forgotten to mention the fact that the Crusaders have a huge injury toll with top world class players out. Not to mention the fact that they are obviously in a transition period. No this will not spark a slow death for NZ rugby, but it does mean there will be a new Super Rugby champion. Anyone who knows anything about NZ rugby knows that there is some serious talent here, it just isn’t all at the Crusaders.
15 Go to commentsI wouldn’t spend the time on Nawaqanitawase! No point in having him filling in a jersey when he’s committed to leave Union. Give the jersey to a young prospect who will be here in the future.
5 Go to commentsIt was a pleasure to watch those guys playing with such confidence. That trio can all be infuriating for different reasons and I can see why Jones might have decided against them. No way to justify leaving Ikitau out though. Jorgensen and him were both scheduled to return at the same time. Only one of them plays for Randwick and has a dad who is great mates with the national coach though.
53 Go to commentsBrayden Iose and Peter Lakai are very exciting Super Rugby players but are too short and too light to ever be a Test 8 vs South Africa, France, Ireland, and England, Lakai could potentially be a Test player at 7 if he is allowed to focus on 7 for Hurricanes.
7 Go to commentsPencils “Thomas du Toit” into possible 2027 Bok squad.
1 Go to commentsDon’t see why Harrison makes the bench. Jones can play at 10 if needed, and there is a good case for starting her there to begin with if testing combinations. That would leave room for Sing on the bench
1 Go to commentsWhat a load of old bull!
1 Go to comments