Slade looks for a big finish

Fly-half Henry Slade admits he has exceeded his own personal expectations this season, even if Exeter Chiefs will bring the curtain down on their Aviva Premiership campaign with a mixed report card.

Slade, who kicked England to the Junior World Championship title last summer, has enjoyed a breakthrough campaign at Sandy Park, making 17 Aviva Premiership appearances so far.

On top of that he's come up against boyhood idol Jonny Wilkinson in the Heineken Cup and helped the Chiefs lift the LV= Cup.

On the downside, the Chiefs won't be in Europe's new-look elite competition next season - the highest they can finish is eighth should they beat Newcastle Falcons at Kingston Park this Saturday.

The problem has been too many narrow defeats - the dramatic one-point loss against Harlequins last time out a case in point - but Slade believes Exeter's luck will change next term.

"I've exceed my expectations so I'm over the moon and going forward I'm just delighted to be playing each week," he said. "It has been tough but the boys are relishing it. We had a run of tough results in the middle of the season but it made us closer as a squad. We keep trying to replicate that every week.

"We've got a while after this match until we play again so it'll be nice to be remembered as a good side who have had a good season and, although not everything has gone for us, we want to end on a high.

"We lost to Quins by one point and we were disappointed to let that slip but it's small margins, it's been pretty close. Some days they go your way but this season they perhaps haven't gone our way that much."

Exeter had Harlequins at their mercy last weekend and were 23-5 to the good five minutes into the second half when Gareth Steenson converted Matt Jess' 44th-minute try.

But Quins roared back with three tries to pinch a 30-29 victory and keep their hopes of a top-four finish alive, and Slade was left with a familiar feeling.

"The attitude and the spirit that we were speaking about wasn't there so much against Sale but it was there in abundance against Quins, a few little bits of inaccuracy, but hopefully we'll put that right," added Slade. "Most teams go up to Newcastle and struggle to get a win, they are tough to beat at their own place but we have to go there and show the same intensity that we did against Quins and hopefully we can do a job."