The Borthwick explanation for surprise England axing of Henry Slade

Henry Slade was the headline-grabbing omission from the England squad of 33 named on Monday by Steve Borthwick for the upcoming Rugby World Cup in France.

The seasoned Exeter midfielder, who played off the bench in the 2019 final against South Africa, was a starter in four of his country’s five Guinness Six Nations matches earlier this year – England’s first campaign under new head coach Borthwick.

However, despite this more frequent selection ahead of Joe Marchant in the spring – the Stade Francais-bound ex-Harlequins centre made just a single championship start – this pecking order was dramatically turned on its head by what unfolded last Saturday at the Principality.

The starting Marchant enjoyed one of his best outings in a England shirt, running smart support lines off of Marcus Smith and winning an early turnover penalty at a Wales breakdown in an arm wrestle first half that ended with the visitors 9-6 up.

That good Marchant impression contrasted with the token 11 minutes Slade was given off the bench in his 57th cap, coming on in place of Joe Cokanasiga at a time when the result was long gone from England’s grasp and they were clinging on to keep the margin of wounding defeat limited to just 9-20.

This all fed into the managerial deliberations that night and resulted in the Sunday morning conversation that no player wanted to hear – that they had been excluded from the World Cup squad. For Slade, who was one of the 10 cut loose, the news would have been a massive jolt as these tournaments have been kind to him in the past.

It was mid-August in 2015 when Stuart Lancaster gave him a Test debut in a warm-up versus France and eight weeks later he was a try-scorer when starting in England’s final match against Uruguay in Manchester.

From there, he went on to enjoy regular involvement under Eddie Jones and his backline versatility was evident at the 2019 finals in Japan where four appearances came off the bench – including semi-final and final – to add added to his impressive run as a quarter-final starter against the Wallabies.

Underlining this Test-level durability, it wasn’t until shoulder surgery in the summer of last year, which meant he missed the series-winning tour to Australia, that he was unavailable for his country for the first time since the 2018 Six Nations.

Following England on TV wasn’t pleasant. “I watched all the games,” he told RugbyPass in an interview at Twickenham last September ahead of his 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership campaign with Exeter.

“It’s hard to watch from a personal perspective but it was great to see them do so well because you always want to be part of a successful side and I was really happy to see them come away with a series win.

“I was able to sit down and watch it without getting too animated, but I care deeply about how they do. It was hard to watch from a personal perspective but good to see the boys win.”

He then added: “There is a World Cup at the end of the year which is a massive carrot, something that I would be dying to be involved in, dying to be a part of…”

Eleven months later, instead of having that ambition of making a third World Cup finals squad fulfilled, Slade instead devastatingly learned on Sunday morning that he is poised for another bout of Test rugby TV viewing at home. Why that happened was something that Borthwick was immediately asked to divulge at Monday’s squad-unveiling media briefing at Twickenham.

“There were a number of difficult decisions as you have to take the squad down to 33 players and we have a lot of talented players in the squad,” he began. “So by that nature, quality players miss out on the 33.

“Henry has been excellent throughout the training camp. He is clearly disappointed. The message to the players that have not been selected is to be ready to come into the squad. We know that there will be changes.

“The last World Cup shows that with bumps and bruises, the average is nearly two players a squad in the last number of tournaments (are changed), so what I have asked every player who hasn’t been selected is to be ready to go.”

But what about the one-to-one rejection conversation, how did that play out with Slade? “Clearly each of the conversations I have with each of the players is a personal conversation, so I won’t share my thoughts on the decision-making process.

“Now there are good players competing for each of these decisions and I have said this many times, I decided you will have three players in the key positions, across front row, scrum-half, fly-half for the obvious reasons.

“What that means is that in other areas of the team, you need to have positional flexibility, you need to make some compromise. That is always in the balance in the selection process.”

Does the rejection signal the end of the 30-year-old’s England Test career? “I think Henry along with all the players not selected, they are disappointed. Clearly, they all want to represent their country, they all want to represent England and they have all worked incredibly hard to be part of the squad. But I also said to each one of them they need to be ready to go should that call comes.”

The Owen Farrell England team photo selfie at Twickenham. #EnglandRugby #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/a3JXIpXDCP

— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 7, 2023

That was the general tenor of the Monday mood at English Rugby HQ, that the emphasis was on the players who were picked in the squad and had togged out for the official photo call, not on the players whose World Cup aspirations had just been brutally ended.

Even skipper Owen Farrell had yet to catch up with Slade following his omission, despite the pair sharing a room these past four weeks in camp. “I have not spoke to him yet,” admitted the captain. “I shared a room with Henry for the past four weeks so I definitely will be in touch with him.

“But listen, there is a lot of good boys in the squad, there is a lot of competition, a lot of competitiveness day in, day out so I think we have got and great squad and people will need to be used over the course of this next 12 weeks.

“It is not going to stay the same, people need to stay ready, people need to make sure that they are ready if anything happens and them boys that have just missed out have been a big part in this preparation.”

Was Farrell surprised that Slade was no longer in the squad? “I think when it comes to any squad there is a lot of competition, especially England where there is a lot of good players. There is always good players that are going to miss out. That is always the case.”