Henry Slade has hailed a successful autumn series for England and insists he is ready to assume the No 13 shirt permanently
In the injury-enforced absences of Jonathan Joseph and Manu Tuilagi, Slade featured in all four autumn internationals, starting wins over Australia and South Africa and the single-point defeat to New Zealand
The Exeter centre also came on as a first-half replacement in the 35-15 win over Japan, and played an important role in England's 37-18 win over the Wallabies on Saturday
He now believes he can benefit from a consistent run in the same position for club and country
Slade told Sportsmail: 'Yesterday was a good result and we are pretty buzzing after that
I hope I'm near the top of the queue for the shirt. 'There is a lot of competition
Manu is back fit now, JJ will be back fit soon, there are a lot of options throughout the squad so it is going to be tough, but I've been playing the majority of games at 13 so hopefully I can keep hold of it
'I have got to go back to Exeter now and there are a big couple of weeks in Europe, and then over Christmas we've got some big games coming up so it will be a good chance for me to keep pushing my claim and keep pushing on for the Six Nations
' Having fulfilled a variety of roles during his career, including inside centre, outside centre and fly-half, Slade, 25, feels he has finally settled into his best position
He added: 'I'm pretty pleased with how I've gone in the autumn. I feel more and more comfortable and more and more confident after each game
'I've had a good run of games at 13 now and that's been a thing I've had in my career, I have never been able to have a long run at one position, but I think at 13 I've been able to have a good crack at it now
' With a busy run of games domestically, Slade sees an opportunity to further impress coach Eddie Jones ahead of the 2019 Six Nations and then the World Cup
Slade also express his satisfaction at how the team has progressed through the autumn, particularly after turning around a poor first-half display and a half-time deficit to beat Japan
Slade said: 'It shows how we have grown and grown this autumn, looking at the results we had and how we have dealt with certain things in games
'The Japan game we weren't as switched on as we should have been. We were in a bit of a sticky situation at half time but we managed to talk it through at half time and come out second half and fix it
'We've definitely been improving and growing as a team. The summer tour and this autumn has been really good for us
' Slade retained the No 13 shirt during autumn having also started all three games of England's summer tour to South Africa, which ended in a 2-1 series defeat, and the Exeter centre pinpointed the summer tour in helping the squad's progression
Slade said: 'In South Africa, we learned quite a lot from that tour in terms of being able to build and maintain pressure on the opposition
Our discipline was pretty awful in the summer. 'The first game of that tour was 17 penalties to four and we lost by three points so it showed we weren't far away if we fixed that up
'We had a really good time together and we bettered our relationships together and I think we really brought that forwards now into this camp and we had a real focus on our unity and togetherness working together for the same thing
'
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