Cueto was Ashton but without all the fanfare

CLOSE members of Chris Ashton’s own family would hesitate to describe him as “the complete wing”, but his attacking instincts – rooted in the 13-man game but brought to full flower in a different landscape – have always been the stuff of wonder. There has not been a better pure tryscorer in England since the sport went pro.

But in the interests of fairness, we should take a moment to ponder the contribution of another son of the north-west, Mark Cueto, who once headed the Premiership alltime scoring list now topped by Ashton, who set a new mark with his hat-trick for Leicester last weekend.

The two men were part of England’s back three towards the end of Martin Johnson’s illstarred stewardship. If Ashton was the buccaneering adventurer who didn’t much care for the defensive slog, Cueto was the security blanket: the multitasker with the organisational brain.

Interestingly, he scored 20 Test tries. Which was precisely where the more flamboyant Ashton ended up, internationally speaking. Different roads, same destination.

It is possible to argue that while Cueto made the most of his gifts as a top-level wing, Ashton was a little on the wasteful side. If coaches knew what they were getting with the former, they also knew what they were unlikely to get from the latter. That’s a big difference.

And when all is said and done, only one of them was a Test Lion and played in a World Cup final. Ashton offered far more than Cueto in the way of sound and fury, metaphorically speaking, but sometimes, noise is just noise.

Taken in the round, the bigger statements came from the quieter man.