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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.
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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.
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“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.”
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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.”
