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Christian Wade to play first rugby match in four years on Saturday

(Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images)

Former England international Christian Wade is set to play his first rugby match in four years when he lines out this Saturday for Racing 92 at the In Extenso SuperSevens event in Pau. The 31-year-old winger 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.

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Having returned to England earlier this summer following the expiry of his Bills contract, Wade hinted that he could make a return to rugby but the restricted Premiership market wasn’t kind to him at a time where budgets are squeezed due to the reduced salary cap.

A lifeline emerged, though, on August 18 when it was reported that Wade could potentially join Paris-based Racing as a medical joker after their new rugby league signing, St Helens’ Regan Grace, suffered a ruptured achilles that will sideline him until early 2023.

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The Top 14 season in France begins on the first weekend of September with Racing hosting last season’s beaten finalists Castres and the club have now decided to check out Wade as they have named him in their 15-strong squad for this Saturday’s sevens event in Pau which starts with a match versus Montpellier.

The Racing squad, which takes the field on Saturday lunchtime in the 16-team tournament, also includes Niko Matawalu, the Fijian scrum-half who played last season for Montauban in the Pro D2.

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

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.

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Bull Shark 5 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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