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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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J
JW 10 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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