ASH’S PUNCH COULD KO HIS RECALL HOPES
CHRIS ASHTON’S hopes of an international return are hanging by a thread after his latest brain fade.
The wing was sent off for punching in Sale’s pre-season friendly against Castres on Friday and will find out today if he is set for a citing and a possible ban.
RFU disciplinary chiefs are waiting for a report from match officials following Sale’s 20-17 win, but video shows Ashton hitting Castres scrumhalf Rory Kockott with a left-hander.
Ashton and France scrum-half Kockott (below) both saw red, as did Sale prop Alexandru Tarus, in a friendly that turned out to be anything but.
England boss Eddie Jones is set to name a training squad ahead of autumn internationals against South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia on September 20.
But Ashton could miss out on those games weeks after being invited back into the England fold by Jones following his summer move to Sale from Toulon.
Manu Tuilagi copped a five-week ban in 2011 for punching Ashton in a club game and a similar suspension would see the big-scoring wing out of the frame for England’s next get-together.
The 31-year-old has taken a huge cut in wages to move back to England from France in order to give himself a shot at playing in next year’s World Cup in Japan.
Ashton walked out on Toulon, where he broke the Top-14 try-scoring record, with two years left on his contract to have a crack at a second global tournament. But this latest own goal could see that dream strangled at birth.
He was picked by Jones (right) for the coach’s first England squad in January 2016. However, successive bans for gouging and biting saw him leave Saracens for the south of France, with his Test career in limbo after 19 tries in 39 games for the national side.
Jones is barred from picking players who are playing abroad, but Ashton put his face in the frame again by moving back to this country.
And he was rewarded when the Australian picked him for an England training camp at the start of the month in Teddington.