Wasps have released their England wing Christian Wade from his contract so he can attempt to break into American football.
Wade, whose solitary cap came in 2013 against Argentina before he was summoned to join the British & Irish Lions in Australia, has scored 82 Premiership tries, a total bettered only by two players.
The 27-year old has spent his senior career with Wasps but has not been considered by England since Eddie Jones took over as head coach at the end of 2015 and is expected to attempt to break into American football through its international player pathway programme.
“I have decided to leave for personal reasons after nine years playing for Wasps,” Wade said. “I would like to thank the club’s chairman, Derek Richardson, and Dai Young [the director of rugby] for their support, consideration and understanding in what is the most difficult decision of my life.”
Wasps tried to persuade Wade, whose fifth and final appearance of the season was against Gloucester at the start of this month, to stay. “We held numerous discussions with him to try and convince him to keep pushing forward with Wasps, but in the end it was clear this was the path he wished to go down,” Young said. “It is very disappointing to lose a player of his quality at this stage of the season.”
Wasps, who have been linked with Toulon’s New Zealand centre Malakai Fekitoa, are expected to sign Michele Campagnaro, who will captain Italy against Ireland in Chicago next week. The 25-year old is being released from his contractby Exeter, the club he joined in 2015, next week which means he will be able to play for the Azzurri in a game outside the official Test window because he will not be bound by the Premiership’s rule on the non-release of non-England players.
The former Wasps fly-half Danny Cipriani has been suspended for three weeks following his red card last Saturday during Gloucester’s European Champions Cup defeat against Munster at Thomond Park.
Cipriani appeared before a disciplinary panel in Paris on Wednesday after being sent off for a head-high challenge on the Munster centre Rory Scannell. He accepted the decision and apologised despite the red card being widely seen as disproportionate – even under the crackdown on dangerous tackles – because he appeared to be trying to get out of the way rather than make contact.
His guilty plea, together with his contrition and previous good disciplinary record, meant a ban of six weeks was halved. He will miss the first three rounds of the new Premiership Cup, matches in which he was unlikely to have played much of a part. He will be free to play again on 12 November, four days before Gloucester host Leicester in the Premiership.
It means he would be available for England’s final two matches of their autumn campaign against Japan and Australia should either George Ford or Owen Farrell suffer an injury, although the national head coach, Eddie Jones, has alternative fly-halfs in his squad in Alex Lozowski and Henry Slade.
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