100 reasons why Ashton is one of England's best

WHEN Chris Ashton first came on the scene after leaving Wigan and rugby league for Northampton, they were in the Championship.

- 

It meant that, in his first season in rugby union, Ashton scored a ton tries – but I remember thinking then that you could put a prop forward on the wing in that league and he would probably be top scorer.

When Northampton were promoted back into the Premiership, Ashton did not make an immediate impact in the way he had in the second tier, and had to work hard to make the big breakthrough.

I always considered that playing on the wing in rugby league and making the move to rugby union in the same position was an easy transition. Yes, the kicking game is more in play than in league, and positionally it’s a bit different, but overall there are many more similarities than differences.

However, you can tell that it’s a lot more difficult than that because the number of converts from league who have made it in union, even among wingers, is limited. Jason Robinson and the Australians Wendell Sailor and Israel Folau – who was an immense rugby talent – are at the top of the list.

So, kudos to Ashton for going from the Championship, where he had lots of time and space in which to score tries, to rising to the top in the Premiership. When it became more challenging to score touchdowns he had to learn – and boy, did he learn quickly.

I have never seen a better tracker of the ball than Ashton, and it enabled him to be where he needed to be at exactly the right moment. In the process he has become one of the greatest finishers that English rugby union has seen.

It started with a tremendous end-to-end solo try against Australia at Twickenham in 2010 at the start of an international career which saw Ashton win 44 England caps, and continued right up until last weekend when he scored a hattrick for Leicester against Exeter to become the first Premiership player to score 100 tries.