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EXCLUSIVE: 'It is so hard' - Gridiron crossover star issues reality check for NFL bound Wade
Sevens star Perry Baker, who moved from American Football to rugby union, has warned Christian Wade he faces one of sport’s toughest challenges to break into the National Football League.
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Wade has quit Premiership club Wasps to try and forge a career in the NFL and while his switch has yet to be officially confirmed, RugbyPass has been assured the 27-year-old England and British and Irish Lions wing has turned his back on union.
Wade is third in the all-time Premiership try-scorers list with 82 tries and follows fellow rugby union players Alex Gray and Christian Scotland-Williamson who are also trying to crack American football via the NFL’s international player pathway programme.
Baker, the reigning World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year, was signed as a wide receiver by the Philadelphia Eagles in July 2011, but he suffered a knee injury that cut short his NFL career. Baker then played two seasons for the Pittsburgh Power in the Arena Football League before switching to rugby union and setting the Sevens circuit alight.
The USA Sevens flyer believes moving from the NFL to rugby union is easier than making the journey Wade, 5ft 8ins and 185lbs, is about to start as he is joining a more complicated game with hundreds of college players also looking to break into the big time who Wade will have to eclipse to earn a lucrative NFL contract.
Baker said: “I think it is harder to go from rugby union to football than the other way around.
“The problem coming over to the NFL is the understanding of the league and the play-book. The speed of the game plus the knowledge of the play-book and reading a defensive set up are the things that could hinder him. Christian will be up against a lot of college players coming into the game next season along with guys who get cut from their current team and are looking for new contracts.
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“Everyone believes they can make it but it is so hard to get that opportunity to join a 53 strong roster for one of the NFL teams. So, it would be a huge achievement just to make the practise team because they won’t know anything about him in America. There are a lot of hurdles to clear just to get a chance.
“The playbook is a huge mass of data and it is added to every week with new ideas to deal with the defence in the next game. There are so many plays in each game and you have to study them all the time and that is why team’s have so many meetings in the week – a ton of them. You are constantly writing in your notepad, studying all the moves. Not having been part of a pre-season is really tough for Christian and there will be a lot of catching up to be done.
“If you are an attacker playing wide then you are X in the play-book and if you are on the inside then you are Y. You have to know what each call for a receiver is because there may be a block to be made. It is so different man!”
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Another skill Wade will have to develop is the ability to read a play while it is in motion to cater for unexpected pressure on the quarterback who then has to change the call on the run. Wade has already worked with a speed coach to develop his footwork on a recent holiday in America to try and bring him up to speed for this dramatic change of career which will involve running in a helmet and padding.
Baker added: “Timing is crucial and when a quarterback drops back five steps then you need to be at a certain point in your run. If the quarterback is having to scramble then you have to be prepared to react; if you are running a shallow route then you may have to go deep or visa versa, you come back to shorten the throw.
“In rugby there aren’t the kind of complicated calls you get in football with the quarterback calling “YZ22” and that means you have to pick up whoever is Y, Z and 22. If a quarterback sees something different on defence he can suddenly switch from a running play to a throw and it is up to you to know what your route will be. Rugby doesn’t have an audible in the middle of a play.
“He will have the skills of running with the ball and to beat a defender while in the NFL you also get guys blocking tacklers for you. Getting the game understanding is a problem because team don’t wait for you and that means you have to catch up very quickly. They may be just bringing Christian in to do the tests for the NFL.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Of their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
1 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
5 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
5 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
1 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
1 Go to commentsThe manipulative and cynical Erasmus….
5 Go to commentsWe see you World Rugby….we see you🤡😏
45 Go to commentsBoks are lucky to have a player of the calibre of PSDT in their ranks😍
7 Go to commentsI really like what the boks have done with bringing Vermeulen into their coaching setup. Perhaps they would have gone to france anyway, but Lawes and Farrell could at least have been offered assistant coaching roles. Lawes could probably aptly fill the brief (breakdown, contact skills, and handling) just given to Strawbridge; and Farrell could be a pretty good like for like replacement for Sinfield when he leaves. I probably wouldn’t want them in the national team set up just yet, but it would be good to see strings pulled to either get May, Youngs, Cole, & Care player-coaching roles in the premiership, or to move them into the under 20s coaching staff.
2 Go to commentsSo spiteful that the Springboks won again, they just had to change the laws so that they would stand a chance.
45 Go to commentsWhy would Eben lie? The guy has achieved so much. He saw it as arrogance. Any normal person who plays against the ABs year in and year out would have the same thoughts. Why even talk about the final when you have the biggest game of your lives next week in a stage you have never gotten passed? Rugly is simple in SA. Have fun but the most important thing is respect. I’m not buying any of this misinterpreted nonsense. Eben isn’t English, but no one during that interview was asking what did he say? He's speaking and therefore his understanding is perfectly fine. It was an arrogant thing to say, esp for a team that has never been to a final, never mind a semi. You guys up north can interpret it in a different way if you wish, maybe that s why you don’t win the biggest tournaments.
154 Go to comments> with Sky TV in New Zealand saying it has seen an 11 per cent lift in overall viewership this year. It’s easy for these kiwi “journalists” to throw around meaningless numbers to make it seem that things are improving, but if you look at the stats behind this 11 percent it says that after 10 rounds of rugby there is only a paltry 160k cumulative viewers in total.. That is on average 16k viewers watching a single round of Super Rugby. I very much doubt any of the other numbers that Gregor so proudly “reports” on.
38 Go to commentsGoode is a Prop that played Flyhalf…. Who gives a Sh@#t what he thinks anyway!
154 Go to commentsOne would hope when a player of such caliber is approached for transfer is traversed a lot more carefully. The question I ask, “is the players agent raising red flags in the first instance of contact”. By what I read assumptions are made by nzr based on player welfare provided to them. So what is that? Is it a wholistic approach where family balance is taken into account. Because thay’s what’s in the mix when players go off shore. I realize the money is a huge factor but when negotiations are initiated is nzr involved. As Lendrum says having our best players available is paramount to our success So here’s hoping they are effectively communicating.
4 Go to commentsPSTD, I salute you.
7 Go to commentsWhy don't they just give up on scrums and lineouts, cut the number of players to 13, and call the game ‘rugby league’? These idiots are determined to destroy the game as we know it, and instead of ‘attracting youngsters to the game’ as Beaumont suggests, it’ll deter a lot of the less skilled, maybe overweight kids who it is perfect for. World Rugby is detestable. And as for the 20 minute ‘red’ - why not teach the players to tackle better? (Like the current tackle height trials are supposed to do, but will probably be squashed by the NZRU as usual). I despair for the union game, I really do.
45 Go to commentsHere’s hoping the emphasis on how the tmo interfaces on game infractions is taken into account more seriously than what was adjudicated during the 23 wc. That was a shambles, plus Barnes the abs ref never contested some of the calls, something he’s known for. And then we're left with wr opologizing after the game that smith’s try was legit. I was even more pizzed. And as for the red card if the infringement is clearly intentional foul then the individual is out of the game and after 20mins the bench replacement comes on. So, there’s then the degree of seriousness taken into account within the 20min stand down.
38 Go to commentsNot sure they the article doesn’t hit on TMO this year, that’s were they were putting focus right. The fact the other areas haven’t improved shows just how poor the comp is at focusing on its direction. There should still have been further gains in both those areas this year even it if didn’t have the same focus as others. The whistle to restart time, like touch finders of 26 seconds, surely has to be a key focus area next year. Why should a side be given so much time to kick for touch? Cut that down to 5 or 10 seconds, penalties both become less of key stalling/defensive strategy, and become more ‘live’ with tap kicks becoming much more favourable quick actions. Theres absolutely no reason we have to wait over 10 secs for the preferred kicker to walk up and try and take maximum advantage, especially when half the time its just a delay tactic to give the forwards time to plan, as the kicker hardly even trys to find the corner with his kick, anyone could have kicked it straight out for the lineout.
38 Go to commentsShame. Hope something else can be arranged.
3 Go to comments