Henry Slade: 'I still have a big desire to play for England'

Passionate patriot Henry Slade admits that he still holds out hopes of adding to his 74 England caps despite only featuring once for his country this season.

The 33-year-old Plymothian has made over 200 appearances for Exeter Chiefs and is one of their two centrally-contracted England players, alongside winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.

But he was sat on the sidelines for the whole of England’s worst Six Nations campaign in over a quarter of a century, which saw them lose four out of their five games, and his only appearance this season came when he scored a try against Argentina in November.

Slade, who has been in sensational form for the Chiefs, says that he has had some honest conversations with England coach Steve Borthwick about where he stands and knows a trophy or two for the Devon side this season won’t harm his cause.

“Obviously, I want to play for England. I haven’t been, which is frustrating. But yeah, I definitely want to play for England. We had some good conversations back and forth about what he wants, what I want, and what we want to do,” said Slade.

“It was obviously disappointing for England in terms of how we finished and some of the results. But also personally disappointing about the non-existent game time.

“You have times like that as a player where you control what you can control. That’s how hard you work and how well you do day in, day out on the training pitch.

“There are some quality centres about. I guess I’ve got quite a few caps, and maybe it’s a time in the World Cup cycle where Steve (Borthwick) wants to try out other things. I think he knows what I can do.

“He’s probably got a direction for what he wants to do with the team. Maybe they’re not quite aligned at the minute with myself with that, but I really still have the big desire to play for England.

“I feel like we’re going well at Chiefs personally, and as a team. I think it always helps when the team’s going well. I’m just hoping that that can be seen and push my case to get another shot.
“I think it’s one in the last 10 international games that I’ve been a part of, something like that. So it’s been a frustrating time. Obviously, I broke my hand on the Argentina tour, which cut that short.

“I just want to try my best and do everything I can to get back in the team. We’ve always spoken about it here at Chiefs, doing as well as we can for yourself, and for each other, which then pushes your claim.”