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Henry Slade's simple take on his Exeter future
By Jon Newcombe
Having seen former team-mates and friends like Jack Nowell and Luke Cowan-Dickie leave the club and prosper, Henry Slade is all too aware that there is life outside of Exeter despite being a ‘one-club man’.
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The England centre, aged 31, has only ever known what it is like to be a Chiefs player, having joined the club straight from doing his A Levels and has remained there ever since.
Such has been the high turnover of personnel in the last couple of years, that he and veteran hooker Jack Yeandle are the only survivors in this weekend’s squad from the team that beat Sunday’s opponents Toulouse in the Champions Cup semi-final en route to winning the double in 2020.
Yeandle turns 35 soon and will do well to earn an extension to his contract, while Plymouth-born Slade’s future is currently unresolved.
Rather than play the diplomatic card, Slade did not beat around the bush this week when discussing what it would take to keep him in Devon.
“You can never look too far ahead. I’ve got another year, potentially, on my contract here so we are talking about that at the minute,” said Slade, who chose last week’s Champions Cup defeat at the Sharks as his mandatory one-week off following international duty.
“When it comes to the year after that, we’ll see what the offer is here and what it is about. But I am really happy here at Exeter. I have spent my whole career here so they have just got to offer me enough cash.”
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One offer made to Slade by Chiefs Director of Rugby Rob Baxter that he didn’t have to think twice about was the chance to play fly-half against Bath on his return to club duty earlier this month.
With young Will Haydon-Wood and Harvey Skinner yet to make the No10 jersey their own, Slade has been pressed into action there again, for the Champions Cup game against six-time European champions Toulouse.
“There has been a bit of chop and change and Rob asked me how I feel about playing there and I bit his hand off really. I came up through (the ranks) years ago playing fly-half and I haven’t really played it since I was 22/23.
“It’s been a long time in the centres but I have enjoyed it, these last couple of weeks getting back in there. I feel like you are way more involved in a game, you have more touches, you have more of an influence, and I am hoping I can continue with that a bit and get my hands on the ball and help us out.”
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