Ashton scores on return to Saracens side
FORMER England wing Chris Ashton scored a try on his comeback on Saturday after a long suspension for biting Northampton’s Alex Waller as he helped English Premiership champions Saracens to a 21-6 victory over Newcastle.
Saracens top the table on 42 points, level with Wasps, for whom prolific wing Christian Wade scored a hat-trick of tries, taking his tally for the year to 18, in a crowd-pleasing 40-26 win over t hi rdplaced Bath.
Exeter went fourth with an impressive 31-10 win over Leicester, former Tigers No8 Thomas Waldrom showing no room for sentiment against his old club by scoring a brace of tries to take his tally to eight for the season.
Ashton, who is to leave for French club Toulon at the end of the season, came on in the second half and the 29-yearold ensured he left his mark after the 13-week suspension with a try against struggling Newcastle.
“It is good to have Chr is [Ashton] back in the team and scoring tries,” said Saracens director of r ugby Mark McCall. “It wasn’t t he best game for him to come back for, but he got h i s na me on t he scoresheet.
“His attitude in training has been fine. He’s been waiting for this chance to play again and now he’s keen to get a couple of starts.
“We now just want to see more of what he has given the club over the past four years,” added the 49-year-old former Irela nd internationa l centre.
Sa racens may have made heav y work of beating one of the strugglers, but Wasps and Leicester turned on t he st yle for t he heav y weight clash as second place took on third.
A superb no holds-barred game saw eight tries scored and the win ensured Wasps ended the year unbeaten at home in 18 matches.
However, while the spectators may have been delighted at getting value for money Wasps director of rugby Dai Young couldn’t quite get into the Christmas spirit.
“It was obviously a really tough game, as you expect with it being second against third,” he said.
“We showed some fantastic stuff in attack I thought, some real cutting-edge stuff with great support play.
“But to be totally honest, I thought we lacked some energy in defence, especially first half.
“We looked like a tea m t hat was on t he back of t wo ver y tough Europea n ga mes t hen a si x-day turn-a round,” adde d t he 49-ye a r- old for mer Wales prop.
Friday’s match had seen Northampton ease to a 24-5 victory over Sale and at least end the week on a good note having been at the centre of the George North storm.
The club was criticised but not punished for allowing the Welsh wing back on the pitch against Leicester earlier this month after he appeared to be knocked out.