Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'We had a freeze on, unfortunately the timing wasn't right'

(Photo by Stephen White/CameraSport via Getty Images)

Wasps boss Lee Blackett has admitted they did put in an offer for Christian Wade but it came too late for their former record-scoring winger to agree to return to the club he left in October 2018 for a shot at the NFL in America.

ADVERTISEMENT

Wade returned to England earlier this year after his stint at the Buffalo Bills had ended and he quickly expressed a desire to return to rugby.

However, he found the market restricted in the Gallagher Premiership due to the reduced salary cap across the league and wasn’t helped either by the recruitment freeze implemented at Wasps for a large part of the summer due to their financial problems.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

By the time the Wasps board gave Blackett the go-ahead to return to the market, Wade was being courted by Racing 92 and following on from an appearance for them in a pre-season sevens tournament in Pau, it was confirmed on Monday that he had signed a one-year deal with the Top 14 club.

“I’m excited to announce I’ve officially signed for Racing,” tweeted Wade on Monday. “Looking forward to working with this special group of people and winning championships! With God, all things are possible.”

At his midweek media briefing ahead of this Saturday’s first home match of the new Premiership season versus Bristol, Wasps boss Blackett described Wade as the player that got away on them as they were too late with their offer for him to come back to Coventry. “The facts are it was too late,” he said. “We were keen. I was interested to see how he would go back in the sport.

“He was obviously really passionate about the club, so it was definitely something we were willing to look at and speak to. There is nothing we could have done.

ADVERTISEMENT

“He came into the club (during the summer) and we spoke at that time but then it was always through our recruitment guys but as I spoke about a couple of weeks ago, we had a freeze on for a while so there was no point speaking to someone when you can’t do anything about it.

“If there was a deal to happen we may have been able to have done it but unfortunately the timing wasn’t right,” continued Blackett, who added that the 31-year-old might come under consideration for Wasps again next year given the short duration of his deal in France. “His contract is out at the end of the season so you might be asking me then.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

H
Hellhound 41 minutes ago
South Africa player ratings | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

There is this thing going around against Siya Kolisi where they don't want him to be known as the best national captain ever, so they strike him down in ratings permanently whenever they can. They want McCaw and reckons he is the best captain ever. I disagree.


Just like they refuse to see SA as the best team and some have even said that should the Boks win a third WC in a row, they will still not be the best team ever. Even if they win every game between now and the WC. That is some serious hate coming SA's way.


Everyone forget how the McCaw AB's intimidated refs, was always on the wrong side, played on the ground etc. Things they would never have gotten away with today. They may have a better win ratio, but SA build depth, not caring about rank inbetween WC's until this year.


They weren't as bad inbetween as people claim, because non e of their losses was big ones and they almost never faced the strongest Bok team outside of the WC, allowing countries like France and Ireland to rise to the top unopposed.


Rassie is still at it, building more depth, getting more young stars into the fold. By the time he leaves (I hope never) he will leave a very strong Bok side for the next 15- 20 years. Not everyone will play for 20 years, but each year Rassie acknowledge the young stars and get them involved and ready for international rugby.


Not everyone will make it to the WC, but those 51/52 players will compete for those spots for the WC. They will deliver their best. The future of the Boks is in very safe hands. The only thing that bothers me is Rassie's health. If he can overcome it, rugby looks dark for the rest of the rugby world. He is already the greatest coach in WR history. By the time he retires, he will be the biggest legend any sport has ever seen

4 Go to comments
J
JW 56 minutes ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

No where to be seen OB!


The crosses for me for the year where (from memory);


This was a really hard one to nail down as the first sign of a problem, now that I've asked myself to think about it. I'd say it all started with his decision to not back form and fit players after all the injuries, and/or him picking players for the future, rather ones that could play right now.


First he doesn't replace Perofeta straight away (goes on for months in the team) after injury against England, second he falls back to Beauden Barrett to cover at fullback against Fiji, then he drops Narawa the obvious choice to have started, then he brings in Jordan too soon. That Barret selection (and to a lesser extent Bell's) set the tone for the year.


Then he didn't get the side up for Argentina. They were blown away and didn't look like they expected a fight and were well beaten despite the scoreline in my opinion. Worst performance of the year in the forth game and..


Basically the same problems were persistent, or even exaggerated, after that with the players he did select not given much of an opportunity, with this year having the most number of unused subs I can remember since the amateur days.


What I think I started to realise early on was that he didn't back himself and his team. I think he prepared the players well, don't get me wrong, but I'll credit him with making a conscious choice in tempering his ambition and instead choosing cohesion and to respect (the idea of it being important in himself and his players) experience first and foremost (after two tight games and that 4th game loss). I think he chose wrong in deciding not to be, and back, himself. Hard criticism.


And it played out by preferring Beauden to Dmac on the EOYT (though that may have been a planned move).


I hope I'm right, because going through all the little things of the season and coming up with these bullets, I've got to wonder when I say his last fault is one we have seen at the Crusaders, playing his best players into the ground. What I'm really scared of now is that not wanting a bit of freshness in this last game could be linked with all these other crosses that I want to put down to simple confidence issues. But are they really a sign that he just lacks vision?


Now, that's not to say I haven't seen a lot of positives as well, I just think that for the ABs to go where they want to go he has to fix these crosses. Just have difficult that will be is the question.

24 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Kazuki Himeno: ‘Eddie gave me a task - to be the world's best back-rower’ Kazuki Himeno: ‘Eddie gave me a task - to be the world's best back-rower’
Search