He's baaaack!

Yes, boys and girls who favour England Rugby, the lords of Rugby have once again graced their most splendid isle with the return of Chris Ashton to English Rugby.  In September he will start splashing up in Manchester (or thereabouts), then by November will doubtless take his splash against foreign invaders from primitive lands far, far away.  Can a world cup trophy be far behind?

Or more rationally put, where does he now fit in the pecking order? May on one wing and Ashton on the other does seem like a real attacking threat......

Jones always tries to get his best players on the field, even if they are out of position, so, May, Ashton Watson, back three, Daly at 13. Problem then is who is at 12 and then of course the 10 spot. Three contenders for it, Ford, Farrell and Cips, with the likely return of T'eo and the possible return of Manu we suddenly have a lump to play at 12 and with the pace of May, Daly, Watson and Ashton all running lines off of the 12, the ability to cause mayhem.

If England are going to play Ashton, they need to gear up a style that suits his undoubted talent, if we play Lancaster's style of rugby, it's a waste of time. Farrell can play the very flat game, he does it for Sarries but not with the flair and vision of Ford or Cips, but do you want to drop your best goal kicker and possible captain although I suspect DH will be back next season.

EJ has enough nouce to know that Ashton is in many ways a luxury player and if you are going to play him, you have to play to his strengths and not try and fit him in to a side that doesn't get the ball to the wing or have the ability to make the half breaks he feeds off.

We shall see in November how Eddie wants to play it.

Looks like hes signed to play FB for Sale.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:Jones always tries to get his best players on the field, even if they are out of position,

Though not always to the side's benefit it could be argued. Look how much we screamed about him selecting 3 locks.

Ashton's best spot may well be on the bench - with the ability to cover all back 3 positions. Also would offer the kind of 'finisher' characteristics that EJ likes.

In my mind a bench of -
Genge, LCD/George, Sinkler, Launchbury, Sam Simmonds, Care, Ashton, Slade
would be enough to make an impact.

I've included Genge - But would likely be Makko and Marler rotating
George/LCD on the bench as I feel EJ will drop Hartley back in.
Sinks - Same reason as I feel Cole will come back in
Launchbury as I feel Lawes and Itoje will start
Simmonds as Hughes will start (if Billy not fit enough)
Care - just because the 6N shows he cant manage the whole game properly but is excellent off the bench
Ashton and Slade to cover the rest of the back line.

propdavid_london wrote:In my mind a bench of -
Genge, LCD/George, Sinkler, Launchbury, Sam Simmonds, Care, Ashton, Slade
would be enough to make an impact.

I've included Genge - But would likely be Makko and Marler rotating
George/LCD on the bench as I feel EJ will drop Hartley back in.
Sinks - Same reason as I feel Cole will come back in
Launchbury as I feel Lawes and Itoje will start
Simmonds as Hughes will start (if Billy not fit enough)
Care - just because the 6N shows he cant manage the whole game properly but is excellent off the bench
Ashton and Slade to cover the rest of the back line.

Don't want to see Hughes unless both his legs are working properly. Launchbury/Lawes/Itoje is an impossible question to solve.

Is it true DH may be on the comeback trail? Good news if so but he may only be one more bang on the head away from retiring, so we do need more succession planning

I haven't heard an update - just thought if he was fit that EJ was likely to still pick him.
George has done well on tour without being outstanding....But there are plenty of other options behind George too.
LCD has fixed that 3rd spot for now, but I was impressed from what I saw in Dunn (before injury). Also hasn't Jack Singleton been in EJ's squads?

Agree that Hughes needs R&R. Simmonds was good at the start of the 6N in a pretty dire England pack. We do need to find another option - was disappointed when Ewers wasn't selected.

Not really a team player is he.

Collapse2005 wrote:Not really a team player is he.

Who?

Chris Ashton: Being unavailable for England 'ate away' at Sale Sharks wing:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/44738931

p.s.  And, let's face it kids, Ashton is an actual healthy player not coming back from injury.

doctor_grey wrote:Chris Ashton: Being unavailable for England 'ate away' at Sale Sharks wing:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/44738931

p.s.  And, let's face it kids, Ashton is an actual healthy player not coming back from injury.

I am sure a couple of months in the AP will soon fix that..

I don't think he was actually very good at 15 for Toulon, brilliant wing though and should play there.

What am I thinking? Lets play him at 13 like we try with every wing!

yappysnap wrote:What am I thinking? Lets play him at 13 like we try with every wing!

Or, of we run out of second rows, we could play him on the flank.

Yea get Robshaw in at 2nd row now he's slowing down

yappysnap wrote:Yea get Robshaw in at 2nd row now he's slowing down

scrum half.

Doc, I didn't know you had Italian roots.

Robshaw can pass too well for that job.

Good point, Let's break the Italian paradigm and move him to 10.

Anyone want to find a thread from before he departed Saracens where you were alllambasting the fact his stats show more missed tackles than tries by about a 10:1 ratio

It does seem a bit of a strange move by Sale when you consider they already have McGuigan, Solomona and Yarde on the books, plus options at fullback in the form of O'Connor, etc. I hope Steve Diamond is buying the player and not the name. From the clubs point of view he will help attract publicity and some new fans - Sale are struggling to really cement themselves since moving to the new stadium and are up against stiff competition from rugby league. You would expect a team in the city the size of Manchester which has a lot of rugby union teams to be doing really well, but like Yorkshire Carnegie it just doesn't seem to be happening. It is heartening to see how well Newcastle Falcons have done in the last couple of years, in what is a football dominated city.