How Wigan Warriors rugby union recruit went in debut league match

Wigan Warriors recent rugby union recruit Christian Wade made his long-awaited rugby league debut for the club’s reserves team last week, and here’s how it unfolded. 

Wade was only playing for Premiership side Gloucester a few days prior, scoring two tries in his final appearances in the other code.

Backing up just five days later, the 34-year-old made his debut for the Warriors in their reserve fixture against Castleford Tigers on Thursday night.

It was a tough start for the winger, making two handling errors early on before finding his feet.

He set up halfback Jack Farrimond with a fantastic assist for his first-half try, but didn’t have many carries to impress the Warriors coaching staff during a 56-10 victory.

Wade managed 55 minutes before being replaced, but considering he played a full match for Gloucester at the weekend, it’s understandable that the winger didn’t make it through a full game.

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At 34, he was significantly older than the rest of his Wigan reserve teammates, but also had much less rugby league experience than them.

Wigan Warriors head coach Matt Peet was in attendance at the match to oversee Wade and many other youngsters in the reserve set-up.

With Jacob Douglas, Kian McDermott, Tom Forber, Harvey Makin and Farrimond all in the starting line-up, Peet has plenty to ponder ahead of their next Super League game against Huddersfield Giants on 14th June.

Starting winger Abbas Miski will be sidelined for the next couple of months following knee surgery, and there are a number of players missing in the pack, too.

Wade could be considered for Miski’s spot on the wing against the Giants, but with such little game time in this code, it would be a risk.

Considering he only linked up with the side days earlier, it was a decent debut for someone having never played the game before.

Having only signed a contract until the end of the season, he could capitalise on Miski’s lay-off and rack up some appearances during the coming weeks.