Slade hits magical Test milestone

By Mark Stevens
12/11/22

Exeter Chiefs back Henry Slade enjoyed a magical milestone for England as he celebrated winning his 50th Test cap in their 52-13 victory over Japan at Twickenham.

Slade was a second half replacement for Joe Cokanasiga, joining club-mates Luke Cowan-Dickie and Sam Simmonds in helping Eddie Jones’ side return to winning ways after their loss to Argentina the week previous.

Fellow Chief, Jack Nowell, did not feature at HQ after he was forced out of the action ahead of kick-off due to an abdominal injury sustained in training earlier in the week.

Nowell watched on as England ran in seven tries to overwhelm their rivals. Full-back Freddie Steward burst through on 12 minutes before helping set up Marcus Smith for his team's second try.

Guy Porter went over in the final play of the first half, before Ellis Genge bulldozed through after the break. Porter snaffled his second from Owen Farrell's kick, before a penalty try and Smith topped up England's lead.

Japan's only try came through replacement scrum-half Naoto Saito as the Brave Blossoms failed to push England as hard as they did New Zealand and France earlier this year.

Jones said that his team are on an upward trajectory after their disappointing start to the Autumn internationals.

"It's an improvement. As we said at the start of November, each game we want to get a little bit better and we were definitely better than the Argentina game," Jones said. "I thought we played with a lot of purpose and we knew exactly how we wanted to play."

Next up for England is the visit of New Zealand to Twickenham next Saturday and Jones is already relishing the prospect of tackling the mighty All Blacks.

"It's an opportunity to play against one of the giants of world rugby. For an England player it's a massive opportunity," said Jones. "If you look at the history of the sport, the game's been going for 150 years and England have won 19 per cent of their Tests against New Zealand.

"We're looking forward to the opportunity to break history again.

"They're playing a slightly different style of game to what they used to, but guys who played in that game [the 2019 semi-final] - Owen Farrell, Mako Vunipola, Billy Vunipola, Maro Itoje, Jamie George - are going to be important in reinforcing to the players that it's not mission impossible.

England's victory in the Rugby World Cup semi-final three years ago is a highlight of Jones' seven-year reign.

"We showed that if you've got the right attitude and the right game plan then history can be broken," Jones said. "If we go after them then they're there for the taking - and we're going to go after them."