England centre Henry Slade issues response to French prop's death threat

Henry Slade has wished France “good luck” ahead of Saturday’s World Cup group decider in response to a claim by prop Emerick Setiano that “we want to kill them”.

Les Blues are still seething at their 44-8 Six Nations defeat at Twickenham in February and Setiano expressed the team’s anguish in the most colourful language possible.

If the game does proceed despite the threat of disruption from Super Typhoon Hagibis, then Slade will start at outside centre in his first appearance of the World Cup having been limited to two replacement appearances due to a significant knee injury.

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“France have a lot of threats across the park – they have some dangerous guys – but so do we,” Slade said.

“If they want to try and kill us then good luck because we have got some big lads. The boys are excited to put in a really good performance.

“We just want to keep momentum going. We are feeling pretty confident at the minute and rightly so.

“We have had some good performances over the last few weeks and before the tournament. We want to keep the train rolling.”

Henry Slade was England’s first choice outside centre until his knee injury wiped out his summer, forcing him to miss all four warm-up Tests.

“I definitely want to put my case forward. It has been frustrating for me to miss so much game time,” he said.

England’s crunch Rugby World Cup Pool match with France could be played behind closed doors if it is not cancelled altogether.

Scotland’s crucial match with hosts Japan is also set to effected by superstorm Typhoon Hagibis – aka Typhoon Haggis – which is approaching the island nation and is expected to make landfall this weekend.

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French media are reporting that the matches between the four sides are to be cancelled altogether. This move would see each game deemed a draw by World Rugby, with each side receiving two points each.

This would see Japan qualify as top of Pool A, with Ireland coming in second if they secure no less than a losing bonus point versus Samoa in Fukuoka.

England and France sharing two points would see both qualify for the quarter-finals, with England going through as the winner of Pool C.

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