Christian Wade scores twice in first rugby match in four years

Christian Wade has demonstrated that he hasn’t lost the knack of scoring tries as the 31-year-old ran in two for Racing in their opening game at the In Extenso SuperSevens event in Pau. It was the ex-England international’s first rugby match in nearly four years as he made his final appearance for Wasps in October 2018 before quitting the sport for the chance to try and make it in the NFL with Buffalo Bills.

Despite not playing rugby in all that time, the prolific Wade is still ranked as the fourth highest Premiership try-scorer of all time. His tally of 82 is just 13 tries behind Chris Ashton of Leicester who took the No1 position off Tom Varndell earlier this year.

Wade returned to England earlier this summer following the expiry of his Bills contract in America and hinted that he could make a return to rugby. The restricted Premiership market wasn’t kind at a time when budgets are squeezed due to the reduced salary cap and a concrete offer didn’t materialise.

However, Racing offered Wade an opportunity to try out for them in this Saturday’s sevens tournament that is taking place seven days before they open their new Top 14 campaign with a home match versus Castres, the league’s 2021/22 beaten finalists.

Racing have a medical joker slot to fill for the coming months after new signing Regan Grace suffered a ruptured achilles playing rugby league for St Helens, an injury that will sideline him until early 2023.

Wade was named in a 15-strong Racing squad for the 16-team sevens tournament and he tweeted on Friday that he was hoping to make an impact. “Looking forward to making an appearance with Racing at the SuperSevens tomorrow. Let’s go have some fun,” he wrote.

That delight didn’t take long to materialise as Wade scored the second and third Racing tries in their 33-5 round of 16 win over Montpellier to earn a quarter-final versus Parisian rivals Stade later on Saturday afternoon, a derby that they won 31-21. They were knocked out in the semi-finals, however, losing 34-0 to Monaco.

Wade spent eight and a half seasons at Wasps, making 165 appearances for the club before trying his luck in American football. Since his return to England, he has launched a series of next-gen rugby camps aimed at upskilling young players.