18-02-2025
Henry Slade must prove worth to England side in double Smith era
Steve Borthwick may only have been England head coach since the end of 2022, but it feels as though his tenure can be split into three or four distinct eras. And no one player personifies that sense of fragmentation as much as Henry Slade.
The 26-25 victory over France earlier his month represented Slade's 71st cap and his 14th England start in succession – the longest run of consecutive starts in a Test career that began back in 2015 with an outing alongside Sam Burgess in a World Cup warm-up game. Eight years later, he was a shock omission from the final squad for the 2023 tournament. Then after that campaign, with Joe Marchant's move to Stade Français, Slade seemed to go from surplus to essential.
Since the beginning of 2024, only three other players – Maro Itoje, Tommy Freeman and Ben Earl – have tallied more than Slade's 1033 minutes. Those four individuals are the only men to have started all 14 Tests in that period. Lest we forget, Slade was whisked to Exeter Chiefs and told to prove his fitness in a Premiership game on the eve of the autumn internationals.
Yet there remain plenty of sceptics who are curious about the 31-year-old's ongoing importance to England, especially if Fin Smith and Marcus Smith are to be retained as a pair of dovetailing distributors.
For The Love Of Rugby, their podcast and YouTube show, gives Ben Youngs and Dan Cole a platform to break down matches with unrivalled insight into the England side and how it operates. Following the France win, they discussed in fascinating detail the benefits of fielding two 'playmakers' in tandem.
Youngs declared that England had been 'crying out' for a pair of distributors in the absence of George Furbank to offer variety. Cole explained that, when a team has two organisers, one player will be able to 'step up at first-receiver' or 'rip down a short side and play to an edge so you can fall back into shape'.
'They've got to be able to organise within [attacking] shape,' Youngs added. 'And when you have one organiser/playmaker, they're having to do so many moving parts. It sounds simple, but you would be amazed at how many communicators don't actually organise out the back of [attacking] shape or know what they're looking for.'
The inference here is that these co-hosts, who number 245 England caps between them, do not view Slade as a playmaker capable of coordinating team-mates and honing structure on the run. Indeed, Youngs would go on to state that Borthwick's side is 'not getting distribution' from its centres.
This does not feel unfair. Although Slade grew up as a fly-half and has appeared there for Exeter recently, his influence on England's attack has seemed limited to fleeting moments, such as a deft grubber for Cadan Murley's try in Dublin, rather than assertive organisation of those around him.
That's how you make your @EnglandRugby debut 😎
Cadan Murley 👏👏👏 #GuinnessM6N
— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 1, 2025
Should Borthwick persist with both Smiths together, there are valid arguments to pair Ollie Lawrence with either Fraser Dingwall, to maximise Northampton Saints synergy, or a more dynamic line-runner such as Oscar Beard.
Across his 155 minutes on the pitch this Six Nations so far, Slade has thrown eight passes and kicked the ball seven times. He is rarely as prominent as one thinks he might be. England could surely use his left foot more in situations like this, for instance, as Ireland lean on James Lowe:
That said, Slade is performing plenty of unappreciated work. Just as he ushered in the aggressive blitz while Felix Jones was defence coach, Slade is helping the team settle into a softer drift system.
This was given a severe examination in round two because France crash heavy carriers close to the ruck before spreading the ball wide when the defence has become narrow. Here, in the opening moments, Slade has Thomas Ramos covered.
However, Tommy Freeman jams in. This allows Ramos to free Pierre-Louis Barassi:
Watch this phase a few minutes later. England are dangerously narrow. As part of a blitz, Slade would be encouraged to dart from out-to-in and target a carrier. Instead, he backs off and tracks across to drag down Ramos:
On the following phase, Tom Curry bursts off the line to force a spill from Alexandre Roumat:
This angle illustrates the ground that Slade covers off the ball:
Similarly understated graft brought about England's first try. Slade is set up as a potential first-receiver from this scrum before Freeman carves off his wing, taking a pass from Alex Mitchell and trucking through Matthieu Jalibert.
Slade supports to generate a quick ruck:
Fin Smith dinks ahead on the next phase and a strong England chase leads to a poor clearance from Antoine Dupont. Ben Earl has dropped to gather, and Slade also cycles into the back-field. He alerts Earl to the opportunity and runs the ball back, linking with Freeman:
England eventually earn the five-metre scrum from which Lawrence scores.
Slade may feel as though he should have stayed out of the ruck prior to this Damian Penaud try, because he committed to the breakdown without making an impact and left England even more understaffed than they were already:
Try scoring machine Damian Penaud
— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) February 8, 2025
But he also won ground with this dink, Ramos covering across to hack into touch on the full:
From the ensuing line-out, Slade feeds Marcus Smith as part of a strike move that gives Lawrence a run:
England cut through France with some slick shape conducted by Fin Smith as Marcus Smith is involved in the previous breakdown:
Slade is in position as the first-receiver on the back of Tom Curry's break until Marcus Smith darts in front and spills:
Now, Borthwick's comments about the match-winning try were interesting. He spoke about how, in the loss to South Africa during the autumn, a midfield of Marcus Smith, Slade and Lawrence had failed to execute the same play as incisively.
In that game, rathert than pull a pass behind the lead runner to Marcus Smith, Slade sent Lawrence up the middle twice within five minutes. On both occasions, the Springboks held firm.
Borthwick replaced Slade with Elliot Daly in the 75th minute against France, with Freeman moving from the wing to centre to join Lawrence. That is another direction that England's midfield could move in the future.
What should not be overlooked is that Lawrence has been influential in the past two matches, which suggests that he has settled alongside Slade and that Borthwick is developing cohesion thanks to his consistent selection in that area.
Slade has continued to attack like a 12 and defend in the 13 channel, where Scotland are bound to flood runners. This was a clever play from France. From an off-the-top line-out, Dupont feeds Jalibert, who threads a pass behind Grégory Alldritt and across a roaming Damian Penaud to Yoram Moefana.
Moefana fixes both Lawrence and Slade, which allows him to put Barassi into space:
Borthwick places great stock in experience, which Jamie George vindicated last weekend, and Slade is clearly coveted for the attributes that he brings. But Borthwick is also refreshing the England squad gradually. Indeed, Ben Youngs and Dan Cole are two veterans to have been usurped during Borthwick's tenure.
With the deployment of two back-line playmakers potentially requiring a different balance, Slade must continue to demonstrate his value to England.
