England Player Profiles

Chris Ashton

Statistics

Squad	Northampton Saints
Position	Wing
Age	24
Height	1.82m (5'12")
Weight	92kg (14st 6lb)
Caps	20

Becoming only the second England player to score four tries in a Championship match and the first for 97 years hangs lightly on the shoulders of Chris Ashton, who achieved the spectacular feat during the 59-13 win over Italy in mid February last year.

Success has laced his intervening seasons. So too have injuries that deprived him of more international caps but he toured Australasia with the England squad in the summer of 2010 and started the three midweek matches. His first Test start in 44 months produced his seventh Test try, against Scotland at Murrayfield in February 2012.

It was the only one of the match, helped England to a 13-6 win and stemmed from his opportunist charge-down of an intended clearance kick by Dan Parks. A week later, he produced a repeat performance – this time charging down another by Italy’s Andrea Masi and pouncing on the rolling ball for another touchdown.

He shares the record with Will Greenwood (2001) and Shane Williams (2008) and was the leading try-scorer in 2011 Championship with three more than Ireland’s Brian O’Driscoll, who was in second place.

Wigan-born Chris marked his second RWC game last September with two tries against Georgia in Dunedin before he scored a sumptuous hat trick against Romania and a match-winning try three minutes from the end of the Scotland game in Auckland. His touchdown tally is now 15 in only 20 Test matches.

His six RWC tries meant he was only two short of the record for an individual tournament jointly held by New Zealand’s Jonah Lomu (1999) and South Africa’s Bryan Habana (2007). He was the joint leading try-scorer in the 2011 event alongside Vincent Clerc, of France.

Euphoric praise had already been heaped on Chris for his stunning 85-metre try against Australia in the second Investec International in November 2010 and it was richly deserved. Parallels were drawn with the great England scores of yesteryear – by Andy Hancock, Richard Sharp, Peter Jackson and Prince Obolensky. He also joined the elite group of Matt Perry, Rory Underwood and Ben Cohen in notching two tries for England against Australia.

Prolific try-scoring had already crowned his success in the union game since switching from Wigan Warriors RLFC to Northampton Saints on a three-year contract for the 2007-08 season, in which he made 39 touchdowns, a record for what is now the Championship.

His knack of crossing the opposing line continued unabated as was illustrated with his outstanding maiden Test try on his third appearance in the 21-20 victory over Australia at Sydney in June 2010. He followed that with another try in the final tour match against New Zealand Maori in Napier.

Two tries against Wales in February last year guided England to a 26-19 win at the Millennium Stadium – their first at the ground in eight seasons.

Chris had headed the try list in the European Challenge Cup in 2008-09 and was not only the 2009-10 Guinness Premiership Player of the Season but also the competition’s top try-scorer with 16, five more than his nearest challenger, Joe Maddock, of Bath Rugby.

His 32 matches in all competitions in 2009-10 produced 23 tries, with his Saints’ career total since escalating to 90 in his first 106 games by mid January this year. He is a product of St John Fisher Catholic High School, where London Wasps head coach Shaun Edwards was also educated and emerged through Wigan’s development system. Chris scored 27 tries in 23 academy matches and made his Super League debut against Hull in 2005 at the age of 18.

The following season, he was Wigan’s heaviest try-scorer with support running his shining feature. An intuitive player, Chris was chosen for the England rugby league team in the 2006 Federation Shield tournament and following his move to Northampton, scored his first try against London Welsh with his initial touch of the ball on his debut in a 44-11 victory.

Bruce Reihana, a former teammate and ex-Saints captain, said prophetically: “Chris is extremely outgoing and chirpy. He is capable of becoming a very good player.” Rugby runs in the family. His father Kevin appeared for Wigan RUFC and brother David played for Swinton Lions RLFC.