Slade to prove England fitness with Exeter before NZ game

Henry Slade started both of England's Tests against New Zealand in July

Autumn internationals: England v New Zealand

Venue: Allianz Stadium, Twickenham Date: Saturday, 2 November Kick-off: 15:10 GMT

Coverage: Listen to live commentary on 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds and follow live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app.

England centre Henry Slade will play for Exeter this weekend in a bid to prove his fitness ahead of the autumn opener against New Zealand on 2 November.

The 31-year-old had shoulder surgery over the summer and has yet to feature for his club this season.

But he will fly back early from England's training camp in Girona to prepare to face Harlequins in the Premiership on Sunday.

"He wanted some rugby, we wanted him to get some rugby, so he's going to get some rugby," said senior England assistant Richard Wigglesworth.

Slade, who has been capped 65 times, established himself as one of Steve Borthwick's key players over the past year, having been a shock omission from the Rugby World Cup squad.

He has started all of England's eight Test matches in 2024, partnering Ollie Lawrence in midfield for the last six.

That centre combination now looks likely to face the All Blacks provided Slade is able to pick up some match sharpness with the Chiefs.

"We'll see what he looks like in training today [Wednesday], does he get through everything and is he really happy," Wigglesworth told BBC Sport.

"Same the next couple of days for Exeter, then he plays and we will make a decision Monday or Tuesday.

"It's missing one training session for us versus going and playing some minutes for Exeter.”

Meanwhile, Sale fly-half George Ford is nearing a return to full training after a quad injury and remains in contention for next weekend.

"George is at the last stage of his rehabilitation," Wigglesworth added. "He is probably ahead of schedule and is in a fair bit of rugby this week."

'Experience will make us better'

Head coach Borthwick has been forced to overhaul his coaching team following the summer tour of Japan and New Zealand, with Felix Jones and Aled Walters resigning, Kevin Sinfield moving to a part-time role, Joe El-Abd coming in to run defence and Wigglesworth promoted to number two.

"International sport is not going to be easy, if it was there would be a lot of people doing it," Wigglesworth added.

"These unplanned things happen so you adapt and get better. There's a desire from me to improve and part of improving is to have more responsibility.

"We need those shared experiences to make us better, so we can learn from them and grow every time we come in.

"And the reason we want to grow is we want to win rugby games. That's our aim."