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Henry Slade on England as Baxter makes brutal Exeter admission
By PA
Henry Slade hopes to be involved in England’s Autumn Nations Series opener against New Zealand next Saturday after making his comeback from shoulder surgery.
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Exeter centre Slade was released early from England’s training camp in Girona to make a first appearance since July.
And he delivered a solid 55-minute contribution at Sandy Park in Chiefs’ 36-19 Gallagher Premiership loss to Harlequins to suggest he will be a likely starter when England face the All Blacks.
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“The most important thing was getting back on the pitch and getting into some game scenarios,” Slade told TNT Sports.
“You can practice all you want, but nothing emulates a game. You have to put yourself in those compromising positions, making tackles – and with a shoulder that is a big thing. To have some good contacts was a real positive.
“It is an exciting week, a big week for the country. I look forward to putting my best foot forward, and hopefully I am involved.”
Exeter boss Rob Baxter put a tick in the box for Slade, adding: “It was good Henry came through. He was probably the last player we wanted to take off, but we had come to a very good agreement with England.
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“It was good for England to give him the opportunity to play, and Henry wanted to play, so that worked for both of us.
“For a guy who has been out as long as he has, he looked pretty good. He wasn’t faultless, but he is not going to be. He got some good game minutes into him without incident or injury.
“We haven’t been able to give him any decent training time in a chunky environment, but he has done really well for us.”
Despite Slade’s presence, Exeter suffered a sixth successive Premiership defeat in one season for the first time since gaining top-flight status 14 years ago.
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They are the only team without a Premiership win this term, and even though flanker Ross Vintcent, centre Will Rigg and replacement Ben Hammersley scored tries – Slade kicked two conversions – they only led once, and that was early in the first half.
Baxter said: “The truth is we look a little bit stuck in the headlights. When Quins had the ball it looked like we couldn’t get on the move until they made a break, and then we scrambled like mad and fought like mad.
“I am not going to make light of anything. We have got a lot of hard work to get done. By the end, we were missing lineouts, tackles, making errors in attack, and it is kind of what the situation creates.
“I have just got to keep working extremely hard to bring us through the situation as positively as we can and as quickly as we can.
“The pressure that we are feeling and the level of confidence of the players is coming out in our performances, without doubt. We are not sparking on our toes and bouncing around, are we?
“We have got a lot to do. We have got a lot of manning up and standing up to do.”
Quins were able to reflect on a bonus-point success despite being without six England squad members as flanker Will Evans claimed two tries, while there were also touchdowns for Rodrigo Isgro, his fellow wing Cadan Murley and centre Oscar Beard, with fly-half Jarrod Evans adding four conversions and a penalty.
Quins attack coach Nick Evans said: “After 15 minutes, I was probably thinking why are we not 25 points up? We probably butchered a couple of opportunities.
“We created a lot, but weren’t quite nailing it, so it probably made it a little bit more nerve-racking towards the end than we needed to.
“The result was really important coming off the back of last week against Bath.”
