Some rugby records in the PREM are seemingly impossible to beat. Charlie Hodgson’s 2,625 points scored for both Sale and Saracens is over 400 points ahead of second-placed Andy Goode—but there is also another record that appears unlikely to be broken.
Chris Ashton’s record of 101 tries scored in the PREM means that he is the only player ever to have beaten the mark of a century, but one player believes he can step up to the task and join Ashton as both a centurion, potentially also usurping him as a try-scorer.
Now in his later years, the player in question does not have much time left, especially considering he is on a struggling side and his relationship with rugby a complicated one.
Christian Wade says in order to break the PREM try-scoring record ‘every year’ counts
Despite the Newcastle Red Bulls having now lost their past 11 games in a row, Christian Wade believes there still could be time for him to break the scoring record.
Talking to Ashton ahead of the Newcastle versus Bristol game on TNT Sports, Wade stated “I would say 2018 [was when I considered going for the record], but then obviously I decided to retire from rugby and that’s when the record changed [thanks to Ashton returning from Toulon in the Top 14].”
“When I came back [from playing in the NFL and switching rugby codes] I was like, ‘I’m still in the running here. Maybe there’s an opportunity to go for it.'”
“There are some guys that for maybe one or two seasons, you think ‘you can’t stop this guy’, but to be able to do it every year [is the difference.]”
“I was always trying to find ways to alter my game or add to it, so it wasn’t so one-dimensional…that’s something that helps to make you consistent.”
With Newcastle bottom of the PREM on only seven points and eight points adrift from ninth-placed Harlequins, it has been a struggle for all Red Bull players as the project has gotten off to a tough start in the first year of new ownership.
On the team’s struggles, and the fact his 2025/26 season has been a somewhat quiet one with only three tries, Wade said: “We’re building from ground zero… We’ve been taking some tough losses, but I think the manner in which we’re playing, people can see the difference from the Newcastle of before.”
Wade would need seven more tries to equal, or eight to break, the record of Ashton—he currently sits on 94.
