WORCESTER Warriors director of rugby Gary Gold has compared pacey Wasps wing Christian Wade to former England ace Jason Robinson.

Gold admitted Warriors were “chasing his shadow” at times in their 40-33 defeat at the Ricoh Arena on Sunday.

Wade slipped off several tackles to bag two tries in a closely-fought opening period.

It is not the first time Worcester have had trouble stopping the 25-year-old as he crossed the whitewash six times in a 54-35 thrashing at Sixways last season.

Despite his prolific try-scoring record, Wade has made just one appearance for England, coming against Argentina in 2013.

But Gold has likened the back’s attributes to Robinson, who won 51 international caps and was part of England’s World Cup winning-side in 2003.

“Christian slipped four tackles potentially in just that one move and that’s why he is as good as he is,” Gold said.

“He’s a small guy who is very powerful and has fast twitch fibres like Jason Robinson.

“If don’t get him the first time you will be chasing his shadow.

“It’s disappointing because I don’t think we missed a lot of tackles.

“We might have missed more tackles in that one play than we did for most of the rest of the game.

Warriors and Wasps were locked at 19-19 at half-time before a red card for Bryce Heem early in the second period led to the league leaders scoring 21 unanswered points.

But 14-man Warriors battled back with late tries from Biyi Alo and Jackson Willison, with Ryan Mills converting both, to collect two precious points.

And Gold praised his side’s “work-rate” and “courage”.

“There were some defensive sets in the second half when we were down to 14 men that I think showed outstanding effort, courage and workrate and both ended up in turnovers from Chris Vui and Sammy Lewis,” Gold said.

“That’s the foundation for us to work on. With 14 men it was tough defensively.”