Warren Gatland has let New Zealand off the hook by overlooking Christian Wade for the British & Irish Lions squad, according to the Kiwi fly-half Jimmy Gopperth, who is “baffled” his Wasps team-mate was also snubbed for England’s tour of Argentina.
Wade has scored 16 tries in 20 matches this season and needs one more to equal Dominic Chapman’s record set in the 1997-98 campaign. This week he was shortlisted for the Rugby Players’ Association player of the year award but was snubbed last month by Gatland and Eddie Jones for the summer tours of New Zealand and Argentina respectively.
The Wasps wing won his solitary England cap four years ago against the Pumas before he was seconded to the Lions as injury cover and while he has not featured in any of Jones’s squads, with Jack Nowell, Anthony Watson and Elliot Daly picked by Gatland, the expectation was that he would go to Argentina.
Instead Jones has named Denny Solomona, the London Irish teenager Joe Cokanasiga and Saracens’ Nathan Earle – all of whom are uncapped – among his wingers while Gatland has picked George North, Liam Williams and Tommy Seymour alongside the aforementioned England trio.
“He’s been phenomenal this year, if a guy like that can’t make England … I would have taken him on the Lions [tour],” said Gopperth, one of three Wasps players up for the RPA award along with Wade and Daly. “He can make things happen and when you have a guy in the team like that, that can make a try out of nothing, that’s x-factor and he’s been brilliant for us this year.
“It’s always good to have someone like that in the squad. A guy with a bit of x-factor, if they took him down to New Zealand it adds a bit of spice. I really think that New Zealand would have seen him as a threat and would really have had to mark him.
“It’s something different within the squad, to just having hard-running wingers – if you have an out-and-out gas guy with really good feet it’s really hard to defend. He should be there,” added Gopperth.
“I just really enjoy watching him play. Give him the ball and try to catch him. He’s a hard guy to tackle and he’s been in phenomenal form. I’m baffled as to how he got overlooked for certain international selections but he’ll still be trying hard for Wasps for the rest of the season.”
Wade had touched down seven tries in his last seven matches but failed to score last week in the 32-13 defeat by Harlequins, which has put Wasps’s hopes of a home semi-final in jeopardy despite topping the table for much of the season. Indeed, Wade touched the ball just twice against Harlequins and there is the growing sense that Wasps’ attacking rhythm has been out of kilter since their comprehensive Champions Cup defeat by Leinster last month.
They are still the top try-scorers in the Premiership by a distance but Wasps host the defending champions Saracens on Saturday and must avoid a first home defeat of the season to guarantee a top-two finish.
“We know we have a very good attack,” said the director of rugby, Dai Young, who has recalled Danny Cipriani at fly-half with Gopperth returning to inside-centre.
“We have scored 114 tries in the two main competitions this season. To dispel the myth, we aren’t changing the way we play but we recognise we don’t want to give a team like Sarries 20-30 points and think we can score 40.
“We will go in with an attacking mindset but also be a bit sensible, not to be so loose on occasions because we cause ourselves problems. We aren’t going to beat Sarries at their game. We’ve got to play to our strengths.
“Without a shadow of a doubt our attack is a weapon, but we have to be sensible, we have to think about game management. And we have to make sure we cause them more problems than we cause ourselves.”
