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It's not looking good for Henry Slade's hopes of getting some pre-RWC game time


Henry Slade scores against Ireland in Dublin last February, but he has been unable to take the field during England's recent warm-up games
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Henry Slade faces the prospect of entering the World Cup without any game time in the bank after failing to train at England’s camp in Treviso on Tuesday.

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Slade was confined to individual work while the squad conducted their main practice session ahead of Friday’s final warm-up Test against Italy in Newcastle.

The Exeter outside centre has been troubled by a knee injury that forced him to sit out the double-header against Wales and rout of Ireland.

Head coach Eddie Jones names his team on Wednesday morning to face Conor O’Shea’s Azzurri at St James’ Park in the final game of the summer before the squad departs for Japan on September 8. Slade took ownership of the number 13 jersey during last summer’s tour to South Africa and has been first-choice since until injury struck.

“Henry did some really good individual work. Looking over I saw that he was flying. We’ll see where we get to with the feedback from this afternoon [Tuesday],” scrum coach Neal Hatley said. “We talked about him being an outside chance for Friday so we’ll see where we get to with that.”

Slade’s Exeter team-mate Jack Nowell is a certainty to depart for the Far East without having played a single minute of rugby during the four warm-up Tests. Already battling an ankle injury that has taken longer to heal than expected, he was then forced to spend four nights in a Treviso hospital after having his appendix removed, leaving on Sunday.

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“Jack is in great spirits for a bloke who has been knocked down once or twice,” Hatley said. “If he hadn’t had the appendix operation he’d have been running today, so his ankle rehabilitation has gone really well.

“Jack is great with the team and has a good sense of humour. He’s an important player for us. Since he got back from the hospital he’s been really good around the camp.”

– Press Association

WATCH: Part one of Operation Jaypan, the two-part RugbyPass documentary on what the fans can expect at the World Cup in Japan

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Phantom 1 hour ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Fact: the gap between the North and the South has narrowed considerably - that I get. However, determining that only selecting only Home grown players or playing in the home country is is the optimal strategy is a bit of a toss up and highly reliant on the economies of the home union. I do understand that England and to a lesser degree Ireland selects home based only. The top 14 is a massive threat to their domestic product. France would probably not be affected (the money is at home). Fiji, Argentina, Samoa, Italy and you could even argue Scotland have only benefitted from this. Their players either go overseas to learn at higher levels (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina) or players coming into their leagues to strengthen the home product and their National teams (Scotland, Italy, Japan).

South Africa used to limit its selection to the home based players, but the reality of a weak currency vs what players could earn oversees meant that you lost access to your best players at some stage of their careers, with very few exceptions. Kolbe left SA as he was considered too small for International Rugby (yes coaches/selectors view), but ironically in France he forced selectors to notice his endeavors and select him. He is only reaching 50 caps now despite being north of 30 - granted rotation and the odd injury also played a role, but for the most part it is having debuted or becoming a regular so late.



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