Slade picks up top Herald award

Henry Slade's achievements over the past 12 months have been duly rewarded with him collecting the Plymouth Herald Sports Personality of the Year award for 2015.

The Exeter Chiefs and England star received a standing ovation from the audience at the Pavilions after being named overall winner on Monday night.

The 22-year-old – who is currently recovering from a broken leg – beat off the challenge from top city athletes to claim his prize.

Up against Slade was Plymouth Argyle skipper Curtis Nelson, boxer Becky McMullin and two internationally-famous swimmers, Olympic gold medallist Ruta Meilutyte and her Plymouth Leander colleague Ben Proud.

“It has been a wonderful year for sport here in Plymouth, but the achievements of Henry in 2015 stands out,” Herald editor Paul Burton said.

“Not only was Henry selected for England’s World Cup squad, but he was crowned the young player of the year in the Premiership and is widely regarded as one of the brightest young talents in English rugby.



“We were as disappointed as anyone when Henry broke his leg recently, but we have no doubt this will be a minor setback in what will be a stellar career for him.

“Henry won the Herald’s young sports personalty of the year award in 2013, so this is certainly a meteoric rise and we feel he is not only a deserving winner, but a fine role model to the people of Plymouth, who aspire to be sports stars in their own right.”

Questioned by Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies after receiving his prize, Slade said he is 'on the mend' and hopes to be back in around six weeks.

But he also reflected on last year as one of hard work which went mostly unrewarded.

"It was a long hard summer," he said."I thought every session would be the hardest one and the next one got harder and the next one got even harder as we went up towards the tournament.

"It was a massive challenge but obviously I didn't play as much as I would have liked to, but I'm just over the moon with this award."

Pressed by Davies on the summer's tournament, Slade continued: "It was disappointing and I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say we're disappointed on how it went but it definitely wasn't through lack of trying.

"We put a lot of effort in over the summer and through the whole season to get into good physical shape and in the end it just didn't quite go our way.In sport that happens sometimes but it was just a shame that it happened to be our own World Cup."

The former Plymouth College student said that, for Chiefs at least, he hopes to come back in time to play a role at the end of the season.

He added: "I've got probably five or six weeks left for this [injury recovery] but we're going pretty well at Chiefs at the minute.

"We're sitting in second and we have got Sarries, who are first, at the weekend, so a chance to go to the top of the table, and we're through to the quarter-finals of the European Champions Cup as well.

"I've got a good game to look forward to when I get back and hopefully I can help the team come towards the end of the season when the big games come around."

As for the Six Nations, Slade said the squad has been given fresh impetus by the arrival of the new head coach.

He said: "I hope we win! With Eddie Jones coming in it's been a breath of fresh air. I haven't met him but I've spoken on the phone to him and he seems pretty positive.

"Obviously I know a few of the boys up at the training camp at the minute so they are saying that there is a really good buzz in the camp and everyone is looking forward to it, so fingers crossed it should be good."