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'He's choosing his house on can he get all his recovery equipment in'
By Liam Heagney
Gloucester boss George Skivington believes that new signing Christian Wade can become a Gallagher Premiership record-breaker now that he is poised to play in the English top flight for the first time since 2018. The one-cap England international quit Wasps for a shot at the making the NFL and after spent three years as part of the Buffalo Bills practice squad, he returned to rugby and linked up with Racing 92 for a two-year spell in the Top 14.
It was last March when Gloucester announced they were signing the now 33-year-old Wade and ahead of their September 21 Premiership opener at home to Saracens, director of rugby Skivington has been enthused about the impact already made by the veteran winger.
Wade is part of the travelling Gloucester squad for this Friday night’s pre-season away to Munster in Cork and while it is hoped he can make a good first impression in his maiden run for his new club, Skivington believes his old Wasps teammate has unfinished business in the Premiership and can become the league’s all-time record try-scorer.
Chris Ashton currently holds that honour, retiring with 101 tries, with Wade in fifth place on 82 tries behind Tom Varndell (92), Mark Cueto (90) and Danny Care (85). “I was at Wasps when Christian was a youngster coming through and we all knew what a talent he was going to be,” began Skivington when asked how quickly his new signing from Paris has settled in at Kingsholm.
“He has got a really strong character that everybody warms to and he is, you know, cheeky chap. But obviously he was doing really well in the Premiership. I’d moved on so I was watching him playing well from afar and then when he made his decision to go to the NFL, didn’t see him for a number of years but read the stories on him.
“He then went to Racing and I rang Stuart when we started talking to Christian and asked his opinion on what he was seeing because Stuart gave him his first England cap. Stuart was blown away with how detailed he was, how on it he was, how professional he was.
“When you talk to Christian, his experience in the NFL and the learning he had to do over there, being adaptable but also sitting in a classroom for hours and hours, that sort of thing really took him, in his opinion, to another level.
“Just for me, I was excited to bring in an older, more mature Christian Wade who is still an outstanding athlete and he is choosing his house in Cheltenham on whether he can get all his recovery equipment in there – that’s the No1 priority for him which I did smile at.
“With all that experience of what it takes off the field in a sport like the NFL, where it is completely ruthless and players can be cut overnight, he has the hunger to come back to the Premiership and make a mark because it’s a good while since he was here.
“He was on track for a very strong record and from Christian’s point of view, he wants to come back here and show that he has still got it and he would like to prove he is better than he was. I was really excited to bring that into the squad.
“The same sort of story with Gareth (Anscombe) and Tomos (Williams) really; it’s as much off the field those guys bringing stuff that was appealing to me as on the field, but I’m hoping he achieves what he wants to achieve.”
Can he surpass the Ashton 101 mark? “There is no reason why not. He is obviously a bit older and whatnot but he is a brilliant pro, he works extremely hard, he looks after himself, he’s diligent, he’s learning the plays. It will be interesting to see how he fits back into the Premiership but I don’t see why he couldn’t achieve that.”
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Latest Comments
Yes that’s what WR needs to look at. Football had the same problem with european powerhouses getting all the latin talent then you’re gaurenteed to get the odd late bloomer (21/22 etc, all the best footballers can play for the country much younger to get locked) star changing his allegiance.
They used youth rep selection for locking national elifibilty at one point etc. Then later only counted residency after the age of 18 (make clubs/nations like in this case wait even longer).
That’s what I’m talking about, not changing allegiance in rugby (were it can only be captured by the senior side), where it is still the senior side. Oh yeah, good point about CJ, so in most cases we probably want kids to be able to switch allegiance, were say someone like Lemoto could rep Tonga (if he wasn’t so good) but still play for Australia’s seniors, while in someone like Kite’s (the last aussie kid to go to France) case he’ll be French qualified via 5 years residency at the age of 21, so France to lock him up before Aussie even get a chance to select him. But if we use footballs regulations, who I’m suggesting WR need to get their a into g replicating, he would only start his 5 years once he turns 18 or whatever, meaning 23 yo is as soon as anyone can switch, and when if they’re good enough teams like NZ and Aus can select them (France don’t give a f, they select anybody just to lock them).
Go to commentsThe only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
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