Henry Slade is playing like a man reborn, and on Saturday, he will make a seventh Premiership final appearance for a resurgent Exeter Chiefs.
Given his form, you have to wonder why England decided they could do without him during this year’s Six Nations, and Steve Borthwick has now drafted a South African centre, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, into their squad.
The heartening news for Slade is he has bounced back from a Borthwick snub before, responding to being left out of the 2023 World Cup by adding 17 more caps to reach 74.
And this season, with Exeter leaping from last year’s ninth place in the league to third and last week’s semi-final victory away to the champions Bath, Slade is “ageing like a fine wine”, according to Luke Cowan-Dickie, his long-time Exeter and England team-mate.
Cowan-Dickie and Slade made their Test debuts together against France in 2015. They also shared a world under-20 title and all six of the Prem finals Chiefs reached from 2016 to 2021, winning two.
