Christian Wade’s top speed leaves all Irish hopefuls in his dust

This is some unreal speed.

Brendan Macken has come across some top talent ever since he swapped a Leinster jersey for one at Wasps. The Irish centre has lined out with the likes of Charles Piutau, Kurtley Beale, Danny Cipriani and Willie Roux in the past few seasons but only one name came to mind when he revealed the quickest man he ever shared a pitch with. "Christian is probably the fastest person I've ever seen on a rugby pitch," Macken told The Hard Yards [from 5:00 below]. Anyone who has ever seen Wade in a Wasps, England or Lions game will testify that he is hard to stop once he gets motoring. Macken revealed the stats from Wade's Global Positioning System [GPS] unit prove beyond doubt how fast the winger is. "All the teams would be wearing the GPS units," Macken began, "and you can time how quick the guys are going.

"He's going about 11 metres per second [at top speed] and I don't think any other rugby player is touching that. The really, really quick guys would be getting 10.5 or 10.6 while Christian is regularly getting 11 and sometimes hitting 11.1 and 11.2. He's an ex-sprinter and he's a guy who should have plenty more England caps."

Macken spent six months on loan with Gloucester and played alongside another notorious speed merchant within the England set-up - Jonny May [10.49 MPS]. Asked who would win a 50-metre sprint between May and Wade, Macken did not hestitate when responding, "Mr Wade!" There may be a new contender for fastest rugby player, though. Macken was chatting to Ian Madigan, who is playing with Bristol, and was told to keep an eye out for 21-year-old Matt Protheroe. "Ian reckons he is quicker than Wade so it'll be interesting to see them in the league together next season, going one on one," said Macken. In Ireland, the fastest player [on the GPS units, at least] is Leinster winger Barry Daly. Earlier this season Leinster captain Isa Nacewa told us:

"Barry Daly is, hands down [fastest in the squad]. When you run a 10.5, which is faster than all the others, yeah, he's hands down the fastest."

As you will see, below, Daly is the top dog on these shores but has a ways to go if he wants to challenge May and Wade. IRELAND'S FASTEST RUGBY PLAYERS

• Barry Daly (Leinster) - 10.5 metres per second.
• Rory Scholes (Connacht) - 10.0 m.p.s
• Jacob Stockdale (Ulster) - 9.97 m.p.s
• Simon Zebo (Munster) - 9.85 m.p.s

Some going, in fairness, from all these men.