Assessing Christian Wade’s rugby league bow following Wigan Warriors debut of highs and lows

Sky Sports commentator Fraser Dainton described Christian Wade’s introduction to rugby league as a ‘baptism of fire’, and the first 40 minutes of his Wigan Warriors career certainly met that description: but the next 40 were much more smooth sailing.

Rugby union convert Wade‘s move to Wigan was announced back in April, but he didn’t make the switch to the North West until Gloucester’s Premiership campaign had come to an end.

Arriving at The Brick Community Stadium at the beginning of June, the 34-year-old thrust himself into the world of rugby league having already dabbled in American football as well as union.

Within a few days, he was donning a shirt for the Warriors’ reserves away at Castleford Tigers, and since then, he’s continued to catch the eye for the second string.

But the real acid test is how he performs in Super League, and on Friday night, we got a first look at that.

Assessing Christian Wade’s rugby league bow following Wigan Warriors debut of highs and lows

Matt Peet’s side hosted Huddersfield Giants in Round 18, with first-choice wingers Abbas Miski and Liam Marshall having struggled with injuries over the last few weeks.

Few expected a Wade debut before the team sheets were announced, but with both of the aforementioned wingers unavailable through those injuries, the union convert and youngster Jacob Douglas were placed onto the flanks.

The Warriors, as a team, were sluggish to start with and Wade struggled to get into the game. When he did get his hands on the ball, he looked lively, and enjoyed his first real weaving run 14 minutes in.

But then came disaster. After that run, he played the ball incorrectly to hand Huddersfield the ball back cheaply and then just a few minutes later knocked on as he attempted to catch a high bomb from Tui Lolohea.

No one was anywhere near him, and Wade simply lost flight of the ball. To make matters worse, the Giants capitalised on that error to score their second try of the evening through Jacob Gagai.

At that point, the ‘baptism of fire’ was very real.

Wade ended the first half well though, intercepting a pass close to his own line and later making a break before putting boot to ball in an attempt to grubber a pass through to a team-mate.

It always felt like Wigan, 10-0 down at the break, would hit back in the second half. Hit back they did, and Wade more than played his part.

With 49 minutes on the clock, he strolled in for a try on debut courtesy of a well-worked play from a scrum. Nothing spectacular from the veteran’s point of view, but in the right place at the right time to get the Warriors going on the scoreboard for the evening.

Soon after came the moment of the night, and arguably the try of the season in Super League, though we acknowledge that’s up for debate given some of the efforts we’ve seen across the competition recently.

Wade got on the end of a kick from Liam Farrell (yes, you read that right!), leaping higher than a Giants defender to bat the ball backwards on the last tackle and keep the attack alive.

About 30 seconds later, Jake Wardle was able to slide in for a four-pointer which levelled things up courtesy of some outrageous play from his team-mates, all possible thanks to Wade’s desire.

Adam Keighran slotted over that conversion to hand Wigan the lead for the first time on the night, and Peet’s side never looked back from then on with 30-10 the final score.

In the half-hour or so which remained, there was plenty of good from Wade including a lung-busting break in the last minute, and little bad barring a penalty conceded for holding down.

So, will he Wade a success in rugby league? It’s probably still too early to say, but after a more than shaky start, he grew into Friday night’s game and caught the eye at times. Watch this space, we guess!