Cipriani call up keeps Ashton’s dream alive
CHRIS ASHTON is ready to make an impact against England at Twickenham on Sunday to prove he can still thrive at international level. The Toulon wing joined up with the Barbarians squad in London yesterday and said he has not given up hope of resurrecting his Test career. Aged 31, Ashton capped his first season in France by breaking the Top 14 try-scoring record — touching down 24 times, plus twice more in Europe. He should be in the home changing-room on Sunday, but the RFU will not allow players based abroad to be picked and Ashton knew that when he left Saracens. But he will not stop dreaming, as was the case with Danny Cipriani, who earned a recall this month for the tour of South Africa, three years after his last Test appearance.
Asked if that decision by head coach Eddie Jones makes him believe he could find a route back, Ashton said: ‘Yeah, it does. He definitely deserves his call-up and to be fair to him, he has stuck at it longer than me.’
And Ashton is just not satisfied with his tally of caps. ‘That number 39 annoys me,’ he said. ‘Just to look at, it’s a terrible number! The team that played in that Australia game (in 2010, his favourite Twickenham memory), to see them now on 50, 60, 70 caps… I’d like to have thought I was capable of getting up to that.
‘I did feel as though the door had been shut and it affected my confidence. I had to go elsewhere to prove I can still do it — to myself and others. Scoring that many tries has said to me, “Yeah, I’m still all right at this”.
‘I went to France with an open mind and I still have an open mind. I am enjoying it, but I would love to play for England. It is not something I have shut off in my mind.’