Guilty Ashton’s England career in jeopardy after Sale winger is handed seven-week ban
Wing now left with little chance to impress Jones Diamond slams ‘brutal violence from Castres’
Chris Ashton’s ambition to reclaim an immediate England place lies in ruins after the wing was yesterday banned for seven weeks for the tip tackle on Castres’ Rory Kockott that led to a red card in last weekend’s pre-season friendly. Ashton will miss the opening six rounds of Gallagher Premiership matches for his new club and so will have little chance to make his mark ahead of the November internationals.
Eddie Jones is due to name the England squad on Oct 18. Ashton cannot play until Oct 9, so his only chance to show what he has to offer would be a Challenge Cup game at Perpignan three days later.
The Sale Sharks wing had cut short his time in France with Toulon with the express intention of forcing his way back into international consideration ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Even though Ashton was called up for a four-day training camp in August, this is a significant setback for the 31-year-old, who won the last of his 39 caps in 2014. England’s next gettogether is in Bristol on Sept 24.
Despite yet another suspension in what has been a chequered disciplinary career, Jones was urged by Steve Diamond, the Sale director of rugby, to consider the circumstances of Ashton’s second-half dismissal in a friendly against the Top 14 champions. Diamond insisted that his player had acted in self-defence in what he described as such a “brutal, violent” game that the Manchester club would never again go there to play a warm-up match.
“It is a matter of defending yourself when things are going on over and above what we expect,” Diamond said. “Chris defended himself as anyone would. It was brutal violence from Castres against Sale.
“We took some serious injuries – concussions, broken ribs, you name it. I have got seven players unable to train because of it. Three red cards, three yellow cards – and there would have been [more] red cards if they [other offences] had been seen by Premiership disciplinarians. I’m p----- off Chris got sent off but it was in extreme circumstances.”
The three-man disciplinary panel were not swayed by the tempestuous tone of the match. “Provocation is not a defence to foul play and lifting a player and dropping that player such that his head makes contact with the ground has the potential to cause serious injury,” said Richard Whittam QC, the independent panel chairman.
“While in this case the panel accepts no injury was caused, it still amounted to foul play that clearly met the red-card threshold. The absence of injury and that the action was as a result of a level of provocation meant that the panel found this was a low-end entry point. Mr Ashton’s poor disciplinary record was an aggravating feature and the panel added a week to reflect that.”
Ashton would have been included in Jones’s 2016 Six Nations squad but for an incident in a European Cup match against Ulster, when an entanglement with opposition centre Luke Marshall resulted in him being banned for 10 weeks for gouging. That misdemeanour was compounded in September of the same year when Ashton was banned for 13 weeks for biting Northampton prop Alex Waller.
Ashton had also withdrawn from the England Saxons tour that summer after failing to make the senior squad for the trip to Australia. It was in this state of seeming exile from England consideration that he looked for a move overseas, and his first season in Toulon delivered a record-breaking 24 tries. Such form prompted a call-up for the Barbarians against England in May and Ashton scored a first-half hat-trick in a 63-45 win.
There is little doubt that Jones is happy that Ashton has put himself back into consideration by signing for an English club. And Sale have a good record in revitalising careers, as shown by the return to Springbok colours of scrum-half Faf de Klerk. Diamond has no doubt that Ashton could profit similarly and that he can cope with this ban.
Kockott has escaped with a oneweek ban for his part in the melee, his actions deemed to be reflex punches and shrugs to what was going on around him. Sale’s Alexandru Tarus was also sent off but escaped any sanction, with the charge of dangerous play deemed not to have merited a red card.