Wade Closes in on Ashton's All-Time Prem Try Record — SkimNews
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- The opening Prem Rugby round set a try-scoring record with 52 tries across five matches, averaging more than 10 per game and featuring four hat-tricks
- Christian Wade scored two tries in Newcastle Red Bulls' 59-26 loss at Northampton Saints, moving to 97 career Prem tries — four behind Chris Ashton's all-time mark of 101
- Wade, 35, is the only player in the top 10 all-time Prem try scorers still actively playing, with a 15-year career spanning Wasps, Gloucester, Newcastle, Racing 92, Wigan Warriors, and the Buffalo Bills (where he never made the main squad)
- Newcastle head coach Dan McFarland attributed Wade's enduring professionalism to his NFL experience with Buffalo, calling the winger a "calming and connecting influence" in the team's leadership group
- Record holder Chris Ashton told BBC's Rugby Union Weekly that the 101 mark is "going to be absolutely blown to smithereens" by Northampton's Tommy Freeman, who scored a hat-trick in the same match and is on 58 tries at 25
Why it matters: With Wade four tries shy of Ashton's 101 and Freeman already at 58 tries at 25 with a new Saints contract, the Prem's all-time try-scoring record looks set to fall — and Ashton himself expects whoever takes it to shatter the mark rather than edge past it. Newcastle's all-out attack under McFarland gives Wade every chance to chase history, but the veteran is reportedly missing more tries per game than he scores under the new gameplan.
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