THREE tries against London Welsh can’t be dressed up as any more than that, but for a player who feeds off tries then Sunday’s hat-trick could be a timely elixir.

Christian Wade has had to watch the autumn international on television after an understandably rusty start to the season following nine months on the treatment table.

High profile errors against Harlequins and Bath betrayed a dip in confidence, even if the tries kept coming at the other end.

Playing a level below his best, he was overlooked by England and now has ground to make up to fight his way back into the squad in time for the Six Nations.

“He’s a real confidence player. He had a bit of a difficult start to the season and made one or two blunders which he won’t want to see again.

“But we all know what a threat he is. If you give him an opportunity he’s going to score every time, but what he has also got the ability to do is to create something out of nothing.

“Every team we play against is very mindful of the threat Christian Wade brings.

“But scoring tries is something he really enjoys, like all wingers, and his hat-trick is only going to add to his confidence.

“A confident Christian Wade is a very dangerous animal.

“He never hasn’t got a swagger, but he’s got even more of a swagger this week.”

Wade is perhaps fortunate that the wing positions are one of the few areas in the team where Lancaster doesn’t seem to have favourites.

Jack Nowell, Jonny May, Anthony Watson, Marland Yarde and Semesa Rokoduguni have all had an opportunity without necessarily nailing down a shirt, and Young believes a fully-firing Wade will be hard to ignore.

He said: “Realistically, Stuart pretty much has his group. We’re getting to the [World Cup] countdown stage so I can’t see him making many changes.

“It’s probably going to take an injury or a huge drop in from to look outside that group now.

“But Christian has been in the group and come out of it through injury.

“He is very much in their minds if his form had been good at the beginning of the season he’d probably have been given an opportunity.

“I think Christian will be there or there abouts. I’m sure he’s not far from Stuart’s thought-process.”