Sometimes it’s easy to hate this game, but I love it now
CHRISTIAN WADE is in love again. The Wasps winger’s affection for his chosen profession has gone missing from time to time, but it has returned — now that he has overcome yet another injury setback.
Being involved in last weekend’s 64-23 demolition of champions Saracens, so soon after his comeback, has certainly helped create optimism. ‘I’ve got to enjoy rugby,’ Wade told
Sportsmail as his club prepared for today’s Aviva Premiership showdown with Bath at The Rec.
‘The sport is so love and hate. When you’ve got injuries and non- selection and stuff, it can make you hate the sport, but I’m loving it at the moment — being back in a team that is playing well. I’m just intrigued to see what happens next. The future’s bright.’
Providing he can stay in one piece for a while, that positivity is justified. During Wade’s three-month absence, Wasps built on the record 32-6 rout of European champions Toulon — which was when he damaged his foot — by thrashing Leinster 51-10 to earn a home quarter-final in the Champions Cup. Then came the staggering result at Allianz Park last Sunday.
The potent finisher didn’t manage to touch down as the visitors claimed eight tries, but he wasn’t unduly concerned. He is aware of being a heavily marked man these days. His reputation for shredding defences means rival teams are taking no chances.
‘I didn’t score one myself, but I know going into games that at some point, they will be saying in their analysis, “Watch Wade, we need to put two men on him”,’ said the 24-year-old. ‘When I get the ball I can see the difference in how the opposition react. Even if I’m on the blind side on my own, I know they’re going to put two on me. That just means there will be an overlap somewhere else.’
He won’t feel fully settled back into the old routine until he has another try to his name, but Wade is just glad to be playing after a grim sequence of injuries. Being back on the pitch certainly beats going to the swimming pool for the unorthodox sprint training he did as part of his latest rehabilitation.
‘It has to be a pool where you can’t touch the floor, so it needs to be about 6ft 6in deep — well, for me about 5ft deep!’ he said. ‘There were often a lot of older people there doing lengths, while I was holding on to the side doing my sprints. They probably wondered what I was doing. It was funny! But doing that meant I didn’t lose any of my speed.’
The immediate objective is to stay fit, put together a run of games and get back into the scoring groove, to help his club mount a strong title challenge in the league and in Europe. Beyond that, adding to his solitary England cap is on the back-burner for now.
Asked if Eddie Jones had been in touch, he said: ‘No, we haven’t spoken. I got injured at the end of November, then he started work in December, so I’m not even sure if he knows about me.
‘I don’t really like to think about it because it can interfere with your mindset. I’m just focusing on being the best I can be for Wasps. The England boys who are in there now are playing well but you never know what can happen in terms of injuries and form. I want to be in the best possible position to take the step up if the opportunity comes.’
A very different international opportunity may yet present itself. As an electrifying runner with devastating speed, he has excelled at sevens in the past and would relish the prospect of going to Rio for the Olympics this summer. But while Australia and New Zealand are busy integrating 15-a- side players for the tournament, Wade has not yet heard from head coach Simon Amor or anyone connected with the Team GB operation.
‘I don’t know how it’s being selected or who is eligible,’ he said. ‘The other teams are going all guns blazing and we’ve got the standard British thing — no-one knows what’s going on!
‘We’ve got more than enough talent to do a job, but I don’t know how it’s going to work or what the preparations are — and it’s coming up fast. My sevens career was cut short because I broke my wrist just before the 2010 Commonwealth Games. I got back fit but then I was playing 15s. But I’ve always wanted to go back.’
As he waits on whether there will be a long-haul trip for him this summer — to Australia with England or to Rio with Team GB — Wade is relishing the transformation at Wasps. He has been there long enough to remember fights for survival on and off the pitch.
‘Players like myself, Elliot Daly, Joe Launchbury and Joe Simpson have been here from 18 and been through all the ups and downs,’ he said. ‘The club were struggling for a while and this feels like the reward for coming through that.’
‘I want to play in the Olympics but no-one knows what’s going on’