Image caption, Christian Wade's try against Sale on Friday took his tally for the Prem season to six - but level with Chris Ashton's all-time record on 101 ByAdam LaniganBBC Sport, North East & Cumbria Published 23 October 2026, 07:54 BST Updated 21 minutes ago What marks sporting greatness?

Talent, obviously.

You do not get through the door without it.

Longevity, absolutely.

The ability to do it day after day, week after week should never be under-estimated.

And adaptability, the desire for self-improvement, whether physical or mental to adapt to changes in rules, opponents, conditions.

In Prem Rugby history, there have been few better than Christian Wade.

The Newcastle Red Bulls winger's try against Sale means he has equalled Chris Ashton's all-time record, with both men now sitting on 101 career tries in the competition.

A hat-trick away to Exeter Chiefs in their previous Prem fixture meant Wade became only the second player to reach a century of tries.

Now, the 35-year-old will have his chance to surpass Ashton and claim the record for himself when Newcastle head to Saracens next Saturday.

All this, over 15 years after scoring his first, and with spells in two other sports in that time means we are not in the company of an average sportsperson.

Ashton's mark of 101 had stood for over three years.

And while the former England winger has regularly joked on television and radio about losing his record, Wade insisted that overtaking Ashton has not been on his mind.

"I sometimes feel the record is more important to other people than it is to me," he said.

"I am someone who is going to score tries.

That's what I do.

That's what I love to do.

But that is the result of the team performing well and us having great cohesion.

"My main focus is being in that system and executing what we're trying to do.

The better we can do, the more tries I'm going to score as a result." Wade's first Prem try was for Wasps as a teenager in a defeat away to Exeter Chiefs in May 2011 in a side that included England World Cup winners Josh Lewsey and Simon Shaw.

It was the first of 82 for Wasps as he finished as the Prem's leading try-scorer, either on his own or jointly, in three different seasons, 2012-13, 2016-17 and 2017-18, although a Prem title eluded him as Wasps were beaten in the final by Exeter at Twickenham in 2017.

But what is incredible about Wade's assault on the record is that he had six years away as in 2018, he headed Stateside to NFL outfit Buffalo Bills as part of the International Player Pathway.

He played in pre-season and the Bills practice squad, but he never managed to play in a full NFL game and was released after three seasons in America.

The return to rugby union came via France and two seasons with Racing 92 in Paris, where he scored 10 tries before he was enticed back to the Prem by Gloucester.

There was just one season at Kingsholm with 11 Prem tries added to his tally which took him above ex-Sale Sharks and England man Mark Cueto and alongside his old Wasps team-mate Tom Varndell into joint second on the all-time list, nine adrift of Ashton.

Always keen to expand his horizons, Wade then headed into the 13-man code for a six-month spell with Wigan Warriors and another elite sporting environment.

Image caption, Christian Wade scored 82 of his 100 Prem tries for London Wasps However, the Prem adventure was not finished and he has spent just under a year now at Newcastle.

He only grabbed two last season as the Red Bulls finished bottom, but he signed a 12-month extension to stay at Kingston Park as part of their new-look team under head coach Dan McFarland and his old Wasps team-mate and Wales legend Stephen Jones as attack coach.

This term, Wade grabbed five in Newcastle's first three Prem games - despite the team losing all three of those matches - with two scores against last season's champions Northampton and then three against runners-up Exeter.

His sixth of the season - and record-equalling score - saw him go over in the right corner against the Sharks.

Wade equals Prem record as Newcastle beat Sale Published 44 minutes ago Wade closes in on record as tries dominate Prem Published 2 October Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Christian Wade scored a touchdown in a pre-season game but never played in the NFL for Buffalo Bills 'Invest in your own team' Watching Wade now, the 35-year-old remains as slippery as ever for defenders to stop.

The burst of speed, the ability to go both ways and off both feet mark him out as a continued danger for Prem defences.

But what is the secret?

Wade says that it was a tip from former Wasps and England centre Riki Flutey that gave him the insight to hone his athleticism over the past decade and more.

"Riki said to me when I was coming through, 'invest in your own team off the field'," he said.

"Then I got a serious foot injury after the [British and Irish] Lions tour in 2013 and from there, I really honed in on that.

I started working with a physio and a trainer off the field and I was always someone really big on massages too.

"That made my off-field team and I still work with those guys today.

It helped me to learn about my body, be sensitive to what going's on, what I needed to work on and going to the NFL accentuated that even more.

"Not most guys in rugby had that, but in America everyone had that.

That's where I took it to another level and saw the effects of that.

"In rugby, there is a lot of responsibility on the strength and conditioning team to get players where they need to be but the responsibility needs to be with the athlete.

"That would take the strain away from a coach having to organise 40-plus players.

The coaches could then focus more on performance and getting ready for the game." Image source, Shutterstock Image caption, Christian Wade scored 11 Prem ties in his sole season with Gloucester 101 Prem tries, one England cap While Wade has been one of the sharpest finishers on the English circuit in his spells in the Prem, international recognition has largely eluded him.

He played his one and only Test away to Argentina in June 2013 under Stuart Lancaster, before being called up as an injury replacement for that summer's British and Irish Lions tour of Australia.

By the time of that year's Autumn Internationals, he was injured and when he did regain fitness, he had slipped down the pecking order and with England starting to gear up for the World Cup in 2015, he never made it back.

And when he missed out on selection for that tournament on home soil, the winger realised that it was time to change his approach.

"Growing up playing rugby, everything is geared towards playing for England," he said.

"It's a bigger platform, you earn more money, more commercial opportunities, but from that 2015 non-selection, they took six wingers and I wasn't part of that.

It didn't really add up.

"I thought I'm obviously not someone they are looking at for the trajectory of the team, so instead of focusing on England, my whole focus was on myself and the team I was playing for and went even harder.

"Things became a lot clearer as I didn't have to think what England were thinking, if they were watching my games, it was something I removed from my mind and my career continued to push on." Image source, Shutterstock Image caption, Christian Wade scored two tries in his two Super League games for Wigan Warriors in 2025 'I'll play until I don't have the juice' With Wade still in prime physical condition, going past Ashton is simply a matter of time unless he is struck down by serious injury.

However, his contract at Newcastle is up at the end of the season, so the future beyond that is uncertain.

But he has no plans to stop, so how far he takes the try-scoring record is anyone's guess.

"I think a lot of people think I came back to break the record," he said.

"But I'm all about making the most of the gifts that God has given me and being an athlete, taking that very seriously, wanting to learn from everybody, young and old guys, trying different ways of training to get the best out of my body.

"Everyone can see I've got a lot of life and a lot of sport in me.

Even post this season and getting the record, I want to keep playing until I don't have the juice anymore.

"I'm going to keep doing what I do and see what happens." And anyone watching Newcastle's number 14 can testify the juice has not run out yet.

Not by a long shot.