Wasps secured their place ain the Aviva Premiership final with victory over Liecester. Not among the tries for once was winger Christian Wade who has a tally for the season of seventeen, which is impressive enough before we consider that nearest man to him, Exeter’s James Short, is on eleven.
Christian Wade’s season in numbers is quite something to behold. He’s at the top – or next to it – on all the attacking measures you would wish to apply to a winger: 17 tries, 36 clean breaks, 79 defenders beaten. His overall career tries are not too shabby either, with 69 tries in 101 starts since his debut in 2011 and, given he’s still only 25 years old, there is much to come, injury permitting. And who wouldn’t place a bet on him scoring a few more in the final next week?
Statistics tell you something, of course, but not everything. Many stats make a player look good, but when you actually watch them play, something is simply not right but Wade is not in this camp and seeing him in full flight it is easy to understand why he tops so many attacking measures. He manufactures tries from nothing, runs lovely support lines and has that unique ability that only a few possess to make defenders look completely rubbish. You often find yourself screaming “Somebody tackle him!” at the game when he’s running, as if the people actually attempting to tackle him hadn’t thought of that themselves. They are trying, he’s just bloody hard to tackle due to his feet, his pace and his balance. On top of all this, perhaps most endearing of all, he makes you love watching rugby that little bit more.
Wade has a solitary England cap, won vs Argentina on the summer tour in 2013 at a relatively tender age under Stuart Lancaster’s new broom. After that both he and his club had something of a dip and he drifted from international reckoning. He has not troubled the England squad since, even during this truly outstanding season and that sees another Argentina tour coming up, and this time with every first choice England winger unavailable as they’ll be in New Zealand losing in a Lions shirt.
Eddie Jones has overlooked Wade in favour of Joe Cokanasiga, the young U20 giant from London Irish, a team who played this season in the second tier of English rugby; Nathan Earle, a promising young winger/fullback from Saracens; Denny Solomona, the RL and nationality convert who has impressed since his switch; and Jonny May, the inexplicable Gloucester shambles. What is it about the Wasps winger that Jones doesn’t fancy?
The vital statistics not considered yet are perhaps a key to this. Wade is 1.73 metres tall and weighs under 90 kilos – this puts him in the “small for modern rugby” bracket. In comparison, Earle is 1.86m and 100kg; Solomona is 1.90m and 95kg, similar to May; and Cokanasiga is basically a freakish monster at 1.92m and 112kg. Jones, like many modern coaches, wants his wingers big and has taken the view that for Wade to be an international success he would have to fall into the “exception that proves the rule” category of successful smaller players that contains the likes of Jason Robinson and Shane Williams.
The sad thing for Wade and the game of rugby is that it looks increasingly that players like him will not be given the chance, building on the recent history that it has been tricky for smaller players for some time.
Jason Robinson’s exceptional talent was deliberately sought out by Clive Woodward for England, but Shane Williams had his incredible international career almost by accident. Steve Hansen had his hand forced to take the diminutive maestro as a third scrum-half to the 2003 Rugby World Cup and then injuries meant he started on the wing for the game vs England. The rest is history
Imagine international rugby for the past 15 years without Shane Williams; all the gasps not uttered, all the runs and steps not seen, all the wins Wales would not have had while audiences of all nations applauded his usually memorable contribution. Had it been up to the head coaches this would likely have been the case yet without playing Shane at the highest level his ability to excel could not have been tested.
This is what Jones is consigning Christian Wade and all England fans to: a career of “what if?” This England fan – and a number of others – doesn’t fancy that scenario.
Both for Wade’s sake, and that of the game we love, surely he should be given the chance as Shane Williams was? He may flop, but then again, he may give us nearly a decade of reasons to keep watching and I’m dying to find out.
The post Christian Wade and the death of small winger love appeared first on Blood & Mud.
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