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It's not looking good for Henry Slade's hopes of getting some pre-RWC game time
By Online Editors
Henry Slade faces the prospect of entering the World Cup without any game time in the bank after failing to train at England's camp in Treviso on Tuesday.
Slade was confined to individual work while the squad conducted their main practice session ahead of Friday's final warm-up Test against Italy in Newcastle.
The Exeter outside centre has been troubled by a knee injury that forced him to sit out the double-header against Wales and rout of Ireland.
Head coach Eddie Jones names his team on Wednesday morning to face Conor O'Shea's Azzurri at St James' Park in the final game of the summer before the squad departs for Japan on September 8. Slade took ownership of the number 13 jersey during last summer's tour to South Africa and has been first-choice since until injury struck.
"Henry did some really good individual work. Looking over I saw that he was flying. We'll see where we get to with the feedback from this afternoon [Tuesday]," scrum coach Neal Hatley said. "We talked about him being an outside chance for Friday so we'll see where we get to with that."
Slade's Exeter team-mate Jack Nowell is a certainty to depart for the Far East without having played a single minute of rugby during the four warm-up Tests. Already battling an ankle injury that has taken longer to heal than expected, he was then forced to spend four nights in a Treviso hospital after having his appendix removed, leaving on Sunday.
"Jack is in great spirits for a bloke who has been knocked down once or twice," Hatley said. "If he hadn't had the appendix operation he'd have been running today, so his ankle rehabilitation has gone really well.
"Jack is great with the team and has a good sense of humour. He's an important player for us. Since he got back from the hospital he's been really good around the camp."
- Press Association
WATCH: Part one of Operation Jaypan, the two-part RugbyPass documentary on what the fans can expect at the World Cup in Japan
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Latest Comments
oh ok, seems strange you didn't put the limit at 7 given you said you thought 8 was too many!
Why did you say "I've told you twice already how I did it but your refuse to listen" when you had clearly not told me that you'd placed a limit of 8 teams per league?
"Agreed with 4 pool of 4 and home and away games?"
I understand the appeal of pools of 4, but 6 pool games might not go down well with the French or the South Africans given already cramped schedules. I do still think that you're right that that would be the best system, but there is going to be a real danger of French and SA sides sending b-teams which could really devalue the competition unless there is a way to incentivise performance, e.g. by allowing teams that do well one year to directly qualify for the next year's competition.
Go to commentsFoster should never have been appointed, and I never liked him as a coach, but the hysteria over his coaching and Sam Cane as a player was grounded in prejudice rather than fact.
The New Zealand Rugby public were blinded by their dislike of Foster to the point of idiocy.
Anything the All Blacks did that was good was attributed to Ryan and Schmidt and Fozzie had nothing to do with it.
Any losses were solely blamed on Foster and Cane.
Foster did develop new talent and kept all the main trophies except the World Cup.
His successor kept the core of his team as well as picking Cane despite him leaving for overseas because he saw the irreplaceable value in him.
Razor will take the ABs to the next level, I have full confidence in that.
He should have been appointed in 2020.
But he wasn’t. And the guy who was has never been treated fairly.
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