Slade 'excited' by what lies ahead

By Mark Stevens

England’s plans for this autumn’s Rugby World Cup have begun in earnest today with head coach Stuart Lancaster assembling his 50-man training squad for the first time at their training base in Surrey.

With several months until England kick-off the competition against Fiji at Twickenham on September 18, Lancaster is determined to ensure he gives all of his players the best preparation possible in their attempts to lift the Webb Ellis Cup for only the second time.

And among those hoping to impress the Red Rose leader over the coming weeks will be the Exeter Chiefs contingent of Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Nowell, Geoff Parling and Henry Slade – all of whom will be hell bent on being part of his final RWC mix.

Over a five-week period, England will spent three weeks at their traditional training base at Pennyhill Park in Bagshot, before Lancaster then trims his squad down for another two-week high altitude training camp in Denver and a warm-up fixture against the USA.

Those players will then head back to Pennyhill Park before England engage in three pre-World Cup friendlies against France (home, Aug 15 and away, Aug 22) and then Ireland (home, Sept 5).

Ahead of reporting into the training camp, Chiefs star Henry Slade spoke of the importance of making the next few weeks count.

“I am really excited about it,” said the young playmaker. “We have had quite a bit of time off over the summer and a chance to recharge ourselves and reset, and it is an exciting challenge ahead of us over the next few months and I can’t get wait to get stuck into it.

“With the carrot of the World Cup being at the end of this training camp, that is going to be a massive motivating factor for a lot of boys. There are a lot of players competing for various positions, and it is going to be interesting to see what the final product is.”

Like many of his team-mates at the club, Slade has enjoyed a brief respite following the rigours of last season, but already he’s been hitting the gym hard to ensure he’s in top shape for both the Chiefs and England.

And it was whilst he was in last week for a training session that he saw Exeter’s European Champions Cup draw for the new season revealed.

Having missed out on the new-look competition last season, the Sandy Park outfit are back with a bang ahead of the 2015/16 season and have been drawn against last season’s runners-up ASM Clermont Auvergne, Ospreys and Bordeaux-Begles.

“I am really looking forward to being back in the top flight of European rugby,” said Slade, who in the past has featured against the likes of Toulon, Cardiff Blues and Glasgow Warriors in the old Heineken Cup.

“We were disappointed not to be in it last year, and we have got some really tasty matches coming up.

“Clermont away is a helluva fixture for us; the Ospreys were going well in the Rabo last season; and Bordeaux are new to the competition. It is a good opportunity for me as well, because my brother is down in Bordeaux, so it will be nice to get down there, and hopefully he will be able to get along to the match, so I am really excited about the draw.”

Slade added: “We made no bones about it last season that we were disappointed not to be involved in the Champions Cup, but having that time in the Challenge Cup probably gave us more of a chance to focus on the Premiership, and we went a lot better on that side of things.

“It will be another notch on if we can progress and perform well both in the Premiership and the top flight of European rugby.

“These European games are as close as you can get to international Test matches, and there are some massive match-ups in our group, and I just can’t wait to get my teeth into it.

“The two French teams will be big sides, and we will have to front up physically. French sides are tough to beat on their own patch. They have got strong crowds, but we are going to relish the atmosphere at those places, and hopefully we can dig in and get a win.”