{"id":384775,"date":"2026-01-01T13:30:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/384775\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T13:30:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:30:04","slug":"chris-ashtons-record-under-threat-as-christian-wade-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/384775\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Ashton’s record under threat as Christian Wade returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christian Wade is set to make his Prem debut for Newcastle Red Bulls on Friday when they host his former club, Gloucester Rugby.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old will start on the wing, joining a back three of Ethan Grayson and Elliott Obatoyinbo, with Oli Spencer dropping down to the bench.<\/p>\n

The experienced Wade brings a wealth of experience, having scored a remarkable 93 times in England\u2019s top flight during a varied career that has also seen spells in the French Top 14, American football, and rugby league. He is also the second-highest try-scorer in\u00a0Prem<\/a>\u00a0history and will have keen eyes on current leader Chris Ashton, who is just eight ahead of him.<\/p>\n

His seven Prem hat-tricks remain a league record, with the former Wasps star touching down 11 times in 14 top-flight games for Gloucester last campaign.<\/p>\n

Speaking recently about the Prem<\/a> try scoring record, Wade<\/a> said: \u201cI\u2019m coming to get that record.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course rugby is a team sport and the main thing for me is being a positive influence in helping the overall Newcastle side to perform, but I\u2019m not going to pretend I don\u2019t want to be the all-time top try-scorer in the league\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said when I signed for Gloucester that it would take me two years, and I was able to be part of a team which surprised a lot of people in finishing in the top half of the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve now got this fantastic opportunity with Newcastle Red Bulls<\/a>, and when I spoke to Dimes about it he just said \u2018we want you to come up here, express yourself and get that record.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, Steve Diamond is no longer with the club, but Wade\u2019s intentions have not wavered.<\/p>\n

Evan Roos puts Springboks ambitions on the backburner despite \u2018physical\u2019 derby clash being perfect platform to impress Rassie Erasmus<\/a><\/p>\n

Battle at the bottom<\/p>\n

Newcastle Red Bulls head coach Alan Dickens is determined to make inroads into the seven-point gap between his side and Friday\u2019s visitors, saying: \u201cGloucester are the team who are closest to us in the league, so in that sense it\u2019s a big game, but I don\u2019t approach it differently to any other.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, there\u2019s a bit of noise in the media and perhaps among some of their supporters about the pressure being on Gloucester, but it\u2019s not something that\u2019s on my radar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just worry about us getting our own game right, and if people are out there saying the opposition are under pressure or whatever \u2013 I\u2019m not interested.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a game we\u2019re working really hard to win, and we want to do it for our fans more than anything. They\u2019ve been incredibly supportive and patient with us, they\u2019ve packed out the ground for every single league game and nothing would give us greater pleasure than paying them back with a victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teams<\/p>\n

Newcastle Red Bulls: 15 Ethan Grayson, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Alex Hearle, 12 Sammy Arnold, 11 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sim\u00f3n Ben\u00edtez Cruz, 8 Ollie Leatherbarrow, 7 Tom Christie, 6 Tom Gordon, 5 Jamie Hodgson, 4 Oscar Usher, 3 Richard Palframan, 2 George McGuigan (c), 1 Murray McCallum
Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Connor Hancock, 18 Luan de Bruin, 19 Finn Baker, 20 Amanaki Mafi, 21 James Elliott, 22 Boeta Chamberlain, 23 Oli Spencer<\/p>\n

Gloucester: 15 Charlie Atkinson, 14 Jack Cotgreave, 13 Will Knight, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Ollie Thorley, 10 Ross Byrne, 9 Tomos Williams (c), 8 Jack Clement, 7 Lewis Ludlow, 6 Deain Gwynne, 5 Arthur Clark, 4 Freddie Thomas, 3 Afo Fasogbon, 2 Will Crane, 1 Val Rapava Ruskin
Replacements: 16 George Knowles, 17 Ciaran Knight, 18 Jamal Ford-Robinson, 19 Cam Jordan, 20 James Venter, 21 Mikey Austin, 22 George Barton, 23 Josh Hathaway<\/p>\n

Venue: Kingston Park
Kick-off: 19:45 GMT
Referee: Christophe Ridley
Assistant Referees: Richard Gordon, Wayne Falla
TMO: Peter Allan
How to watch: discovery+<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Ulster v Munster teams: Ireland international returns as skipper while visitors make TEN changes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Wade is set to make his Prem debut for Newcastle Red Bulls on Friday when they host…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,10668,44,20248,760,85],"class_list":["post-384775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-newcastle","tag-news","tag-premiership","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}