Christian Wade is trying to juggle two simultaneous tasks now he is at Newcastle Red Bulls — one selfish, the other selfless.
First, the selfish one. Wade is desperately seeking to trump Chris Ashton’s Gallagher Prem record tryscoring tally of 101. Having joined Newcastle this month after completing a short stint in rugby league with Wigan Warriors, he is nine short of passing Ashton, sitting on 93 tries with ten matches left of the season.
This quest has been put on ice and resumed twice as Wade quit rugby in 2018 to have a crack at American football, and then took up a contract at Wigan after the end of his comeback year at Gloucester last season before returning to Newcastle.
The will-he won’t-he has been most frustrating for Ashton, who finally completed his own crusade to hit 100 Prem tries in 2023. Wade has revelled in reminding him regularly that he is coming for his crown, while Ashton can do nothing to respond now that he is a television and radio pundit.
Ashton crosses the line in trademark style for Saracens in 2017
ANDREW FOSKER/SECONDS LEFT/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
“You never know, he might be at the game I do it,” Wade, 34, says. “I’m going to text him now, saying, ‘Look out for my interview in The Times.’ I’ll tell him to stay locked in, bro. It’s all fun and games, isn’t it?”
Wade has been offered all sorts of assistance by his new team-mates to make sure he breaks the record this season, but in his heart of hearts he wants to do it “properly”. If he does, it will be a remarkable feat as he has only played 144 matches in English rugby’s top flight and spent 5½ seasons out of the league. Ashton had one year off, in 2017-18 when he played for Toulon, and took 180 matches to reach 101 tries.
“The boys want me to get it, so they’re saying, ‘Look, if I’m over the line and you’re there, I’ll give you the ball, just make sure you’re ready for it,’ ” Wade says.
Wade in action for Gloucester against Newcastle last season — he believes the new ownership at Kingston Park will reverse Newcastle’s fortunes
STU FORSTER/GETTY IMAGES
“I’d like for it to happen naturally, just like all my other tries. I remember in 2012-13 when I won top tryscorer with Wasps, I gave Tom Varndell an extra one and we ended up finishing the year as joint-top scorers [with 13 tries]. It was hilarious. I said to him at the awards’ night, ‘Bro, just know that I brought you here.’ ”
Wade will do well to take the record this season. He averages 9.3 tries per campaign — to Ashton’s 7.2 — but has already missed seven league matches as he arrived from Wigan late and then was knocked out during his debut in the Challenge Cup against South African side Lions.
So he has a second, perhaps more meaningful, task for his Newcastle stint — leaving a legacy. Initially he has signed a one-year deal but, whether he will be around for long, he wants to help kick-start the Red Bull project by assisting the inexperienced Newcastle kids, guiding the likes of Oli Spencer, the 21-year-old wing, so that they achieve long after Wade has retired.
“Anyone that knows me would say I’m just selfless all the way across,” Wade says. “I always want to pour as much wisdom into the youngsters as possible, spend time with them, crack jokes and just bring good vibes all the time. They can come to me whenever. At the same time, I will do what I need to do to make sure that I’m in the position to put my best foot forward. I always want to be the best I can be and I know I can do both.
“I’m all about legacy. Whatever I can do to help this team now, I’m going to do it. And whether I’m here next year or not, that doesn’t matter. I have a big passion for the youth because they’re the ones who are going to take the game forward.”
Wade does not mind the North East’s winter chill. He is used to this from his days playing for the Buffalo Bills, where the car park by the training ground in upstate New York still had snow in it come May.
Wade was allocated to the Bills as part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway program but never played for them in a regular-season game
TIMOTHY T LUDWIG/GETTY IMAGES
“Bro, I know all about the snow,” he says. “If Lake Erie didn’t freeze over, we were definitely getting a big snowfall. I’ll probably have to speak to the guys about making it nice and cosy on the bench here, though. In the NFL you’ve got a heated bench and where your feet go you’ve got big industrial fire-blower heaters, they give you chicken broth and hot chocolate in big flasks. There are saunas here, but they’ve definitely got to do something about making up here cosy if you’re on the sidelines.”
Wade is an antidote to negativity with his relaxed demeanour, star quality and good-vibes outlook. He is very welcome, therefore, at Kingston Park, where despite two recent wins in the Challenge Cup — over Lyon and Lions — Newcastle are still winless in eight Prem matches.
That makes it two league victories, both of which came last season, in the past 46 matches stretching back to March 2023. The buzz of Red Bull’s takeover this summer has quickly faded.
“I told the guys, I’m here now, so everything’s going to be all right. I’ve arrived!” Wade jokes.
He was convinced to join by Steve Diamond, who was sacked as the director of rugby after just one match of the season, and liked the sustainable Red Bull vision. “It wasn’t just: ‘Come in and spend loads of money.’ It was a clear plan to be one of the top clubs,” he says.
Wade scored 11 Prem tries for Gloucester last season
DAN ISTITENE/GETTY IMAGES
Wade has seen changes enacted quickly and calls for patience from the club’s long-suffering supporters. He was part of a Wasps side that were nearly relegated in 2012 and almost went bust two years later, so has experience of the state Newcastle are in.
“Everyone assumes that Red Bull has come so it’s going to be wins all round, but it means you’ve got the financial security now where they can build and don’t have to be looking over their shoulder,” Wade explains. “The key word is build. They’ve still got to lay the foundation, then build on that. You’re looking at three to four years before you see a return on investment. It’s still less than six months since they bought the club.
“I’ve been in this position before with Wasps, when we nearly went into administration. We had meetings where people said: ‘Guys, there’s no money, we can’t afford tape or strapping,’ and boys were not getting paid. Coming out the other side and working our way up from 2013 to 2017, we made the Prem final with probably one of the most stacked back lines and teams in Prem rugby. And we didn’t have Red Bull.
“My experience is going to help this team to progress in the direction they want to go. I’ve been a part of teams and organisations where we’ve spoken about things and they don’t happen for years, but here things are happening month by month.
“People have just got to be patient. We’ve picked up a couple of wins. Anything above not finishing bottom is obviously going to be a success.
Wade has experience of being in a struggling side, having been part of the Wasps squad that were nearly relegated in 2012
DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES
“Having stability financially, being able to attract better players, then having the facilities, all that stuff works together, which means you’re inevitably going to have success. It’s not always about superstar players, but having the right blend of personalities and then creating a culture that wants to win. That’s when the real magic happens.”
Wade thinks the proposed NFL-style franchise model would suit the Prem. Of course, it would help Newcastle, who know they will not be relegated and have sold out every home game so far this season with Red Bull’s help, but Wade believes it would have wider benefits.
“It would probably produce more revenue and allow teams to focus more on game-day engagement,” he says. “It could help to grow the game and take it into a different stratosphere, because that’s really the issue, isn’t it? We’re worried about the game dying, people not wanting to play as much and where’s the money coming from.”
Those decisions are above his pay grade, though. Wade wants to sprinkle his star dust at Kingston Park as much as possible. He loved his stint in rugby league, emulating his hero Jason Robinson by scoring tries for Wigan.
Wade’s time with Wigan this summer opened his eyes to new possibilities in rugby union
ALAMY
Learning how to wrestle with Sean O’Loughlin in the Warriors’ UFC-style octagon at their training ground has improved his contact skills, and playing a third sport opened his eyes to new possibilities in union. With Wigan he made the Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford, and thought it was one of the best events he had ever been part of despite a 24-6 defeat by Hull KR.
“I was like, why doesn’t the Prem final feel like this? The production, the occasion, it was just on a whole other level,” he says.
It is on signings like Wade to lift Newcastle out of the mire. He understands that and will juggle his selfish and selfless aims here for as long as he is allowed to.
“Hopefully I can be here for longer than just this season,” Wade says. “It’s exciting times, man. I’m really excited to see which way the club goes and what they’re going to achieve.”
Wade’s three favourite tries (so far), in his own words
1. Wasps 35 Leicester Tigers 29 — Adams Park, 2011. Second try of a hat-trick
Wasps-Leicester always was a big rivalry, and so obviously there’s a lot of emotion in that game. I was 20, scored a hat-trick and got man of the match. The second of those tries came when Hugo Southwell caught it, threw it half the field to me, and I just ran it back and beat like three or four guys.
2. Gloucester 30 Wasps 32 — Kingsholm, 2013. Second try
Joe Simpson picked it up, ran across and I came underneath, beat one of the back rows, then it was a one-on-one with James Simpson-Daniel, and I went around him and scored in the corner. I was in the England squad, but they were still wondering whether they should play me. They sent me back that week, so I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I don’t understand why every week or every year I had to keep proving myself when other guys had one good game and it carried them through for years. I remember just being frustrated and going out there and wanting to just go crazy.
3. Wasps 40 Bath 26 — Ricoh Arena, 2016. Second try
I remember my mum being at the game with my family, as it was Christmas Eve, and so I wanted to put on a show as usual. I did a move with Danny Cipriani, went through the rest of the Bath team and scored. It was our first full year at Ricoh, when we had a stacked back line with Kurtley Beale, Willie le Roux, Charles Piutau and Frank Halai.
