Henry Slade says 'history means nothing' as Exeter face European rugby royalty
Henry Slade says that “history means nothing” ahead of Exeter’s crunch Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final clash against Leinster on Saturday.
It is just six months since the Chiefs conquered Europe, claiming a maiden title after beating French challengers Racing 92 in Bristol.
They barely had time to gather breath following that memorable triumph, with the current campaign starting just four weeks after the previous one finished as Exeter claimed a European and domestic double by defeating Wasps at Twickenham.
Chiefs’ reign as European champions will end if Leinster topple them at Sandy Park.
Only four teams – Leinster, Leicester, Toulon and Saracens – have successfully defended the European Cup in its 26-year history.
The Irish heavyweights, chasing a record fifth European Cup triumph this season, play their 16th quarter-final – and they have won eight of the last 10.
“We know how hard they fight for everything,” Exeter and England centre Slade said.
“There are a few areas where we are going to have to be really strong and really smart. We’ve got to give them the respect they deserve, but not too much, because we want to be the ones being the aggressors.
“History means nothing. It’s all about what we are doing in our next game.
“It (last season) was brilliant and an unbelievable time, but it is the past now. We know the quality Leinster have got and what they are going to bring, and we want to get out at the weekend and do ourselves justice.
“You have to have that genuine belief. I am sure Leinster are in exactly the same boat, having absolute faith in what they are doing.
“Leinster historically are very, very good in this competition. We are a fair bit newer to it, but we won it last year and we are wanting to carry on from where we left off.
“We’ve been through some lows together and some highs, and I think we’ve come off them and learnt things about each other.
“I feel like we are in a good place at the minute, but it doesn’t come without a lot of hard work.”
Slade, who missed England’s comprehensive Guinness Six Nations defeat against a Leinster-studded Ireland team last month because of injury, started four games in that tournament.
Defeats against Ireland, Scotland and Wales consigned England to a fifth-placed finish, and Slade added: “It was massively disappointing.
“To finish in fifth doesn’t feel like a fair result of how much work we put in over the tournament and in training each week. It is frustrating.
“Although we got off to a bad start against Scotland – the performance wasn’t anywhere near where we want to be – I thought against Italy we showed signs of wanting to throw the ball about more and playing a more attacking game, and the Wales game we did more of that.
“We didn’t get much go our way that game, and then France was a really good performance and great result against a really good side.
“To bookend the tournament with disappointing performances was frustrating, but I thought in the middle of it we did a lot of good.”
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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