Chris Ashton moves up the try scoring list into fourth place

Northampton Saints’ winger Chris Ashton has managed just on try in the Guinness Premiership this season but is the fourth highest try scorer in Europe with nine tries this season.

Ashton, who scored a hat trick in the Challenge Cup match at home to Bristol to move into the top four and is the leading English try scorer in Europe’s top leagues. In the Challenge Cup he is the joint top scorer with five along with three other players including Ben Johnston who now plays for Brive having previously played for Saracens.

Four of his five have come at home and four of them have been second half strikes, and he has one more than his team mate Paul Diggin.

In the EDF Cup he has scored three times in three matches and is the second highest score, one behind Sale Shark’s Chris Bell.

It is in the Guinness Premiership where he has struggled to score with just one try in seven matches but that still makes his the clubs joint fourth highest try scorer of the season with three players joint top on  just three tries.  Ashton after his introduction to League rugby last season in National One is struggling to replicate that form in the Premiership but has done well in the other two competitions that the Saints are taking part in this season.    

Overall this season he has managed nine tries in 14 matches this is some way off his pace of last season when he scored 41 tries in 28 appearances and made his the leading try scorer in the country.