{"id":627594,"date":"2026-06-08T13:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/627594\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T13:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:55:18","slug":"prem-rugby-henry-slade-finn-russell-and-tom-willis-among-round-18-talking-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/627594\/","title":{"rendered":"Prem Rugby: Henry Slade, Finn Russell and Tom Willis among round 18 talking points"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Henry Slade&#8217;s booming kick into the corner in the 2017 Premiership semi-final got plenty of airtime in the build-up to the latest instalment of Saracens and Exeter&#8217;s rivalry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That monster touch-finder set up a final-minute match-winning try from Sam Simmonds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Nearly a decade on, Slade&#8217;s influence <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/c62d689qzzro\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on Saturday&#8217;s 32-12 victory,<\/a> which clinched a play-off spot for the Chiefs at Sarries&#8217; expense, was still key.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 33-year-old purred around out wide, scored the try that started the hosts&#8217; second-half blitz and lassoed Rotimi Segun with a crucial try-saving tackle before the break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Slade, who won the most recent of his 74 England caps against Argentina in November, last month told the For the Love of Rugby podcast he was &#8220;frustrated and disappointed&#8221; not to play a single minute in England&#8217;s floundering Six Nations campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With Ollie Lawrence and Max Ojomoh seemingly out of favour, Slade&#8217;s form is edging him back towards the Test spotlight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fraser Dingwall, Seb Atkinson and Benhard Janse van Rensburg were the other specialist centres called up to an England training camp last month. None are clearly ahead of the Exeter man.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If I was picking an England team, I&#8217;d have Henry Slade in there,&#8221; said Exeter attack coach Dave Walder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I see him every day and I know what he&#8217;s capable of. He&#8217;s doing everything you would expect of a player who&#8217;s not being picked by playing well week-in, week-out on both sides of the ball.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You don&#8217;t realise how much you miss something until you don&#8217;t have it,&#8221; Slade told BBC Radio 5 Live at Sandy Park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Maybe we took it for granted all those years ago, it is very special to have it back. I feel good, I&#8217;m in the shape of my life, still feeling fresh and good.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Slade was talking about a play-off spot. He might have easily been talking about a starting Test shirt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Henry Slade&#8217;s booming kick into the corner in the 2017 Premiership semi-final got plenty of airtime in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-627594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}