I’m enjoying this crazy journey, says Ashton
CHRIS Ashton has described his latest title-winning journey as “crazy” and insists it has merely fuelled his desire to keep playing and scoring tries.
The 35-year-old wing is now relishing the start of next season after seeing his career recover from some painful lows to amazing highs.
Ashton completed a remarkable personal spell by playing a huge part in Leicester Tigers’ success over Saracens at Twickenham.
He was at Harlequins during their triumphant 2020-21 season before leaving them halfway through it for Worcester Warriors, He failed to settle with injury problems at Sixways and was snapped up by Tigers on a shortterm deal in February.
Former England star Ashton, who became the Premiership’s leading try scorer last season and now has 95 to his name, signed a new contract to stay at Welford Road for another year, but he admits he could never envisage the fairy tale story which has happened in the twilight of his topsy turvy career.
Ashton, who won the title twice with Sarries, admits: “It’s been an incredible time in my career and it makes you want a lot more. To win the title with Tigers was so special, particularly doing it with such a good young squad which will only improve and get better with this success and experience. Your first title is always special but to win it this time was probably even better because of the story behind it... it’s been a totally crazy story!
“It just proves that when the opportunity comes along you have to take it. And I’m so glad I took the chance to join Tigers after what happened previously. I guess it was a no brainer at the time as they were top of the league and I went in their with no contract and to give it a real shot.”
Ashton has nothing but praise for coach Steve Borthwick’s feat of dragging Tigers up from the depths of despair to such heady, triumphant heights in a short space of time.
He enthuses: “He has literally transformed the place. The players were there anyway but somehow they lost their way. Steve coming in and giving them absolute clarity. To be able to put that in place so quickly shows just how good he is. How much he sees the details and what is needed to change and make things better.
“Even after the final he still didn’t want to take any credit for it. But that’s the way he is. He knows how to get the best from players and how to manage them and get them in the right frame of mind to do their best on the field.
“Sometimes you get coaches who say this is how we are going to play, so run hard and tackle hard. But also you get coaches who say this is exactly how we going to do it. This is everybody’s role in it. It simplifies everything
“When you have a team like Leicester where there are guys who love the club and are desperate to wear the jersey, and you add the likes of Kevin Sinfield and Richard Wigglesworth adding layers to it, the players are lapping it all up. By the time I’d got into the club the players had absorbed it all in. The guys said they had to adapt because training was very different and they had to change how they were doing things.
“It was slow change and improvement for a while but then you get to the end of the season where they have added this and that in to get them up to how we played at Twickenham.”