Chris Ashton, born 29 March 1987 in Wigan, Lancashire, is an English rugby union player. Ashton plays for Northampton Saints in the Guinness Premiership, the first tier of the English rugby union leagues. Ashton's position of choice is either on the wing or at full-back.

[edit] Family background

Ashton comes from a sporting background. His father, Kevin Ashton, was a rugby union footballer for Wigan R.U.F.C., and his grandfather was a successful Gaelic footballer. In addition, Ashton's brother, David, is a rugby league footballer for Swinton.

[edit] Wigan

Chris Ashton's position of choice was as a full-back. He could also operate on the wing.

Ashton came through Wigan's scholarship programme and played in Wigan Warriors Youth Development U18s in 2003. He was selected for the 2004 Academy Origin Series and the 2004 victorious England Academy U-18s tour to Australia.

After impressing in the academy, where he scored 27 tries in 23 games, he made his Super League debut against Hull in June 2005, at the age of 18. He has since made 35 appearances for the Cherry and Whites, scoring 19 tries.

Chris Ashton was brought into the Wigan squad at the start of 2006 as replacement for the injured Kris Radlinski. Ashton had impressed on his debut for Wigan in 2005, but in 2006 he showed good skill, pace and talent and impressed many Wigan fans and people within rugby league. He finished the 2006 as Wigan's leading try scorer and his support play through out the season was excellent, and although some criticisms were made about his defensive abilities, he earned a call into the England squad at the end of the year. Ashton was one of the most consistent players for Wigan during a disappointing Super League XI season and was a contender for the Young Player of the Year award. Ashton finished the 2006 with 15 tries form 29 appearances making him the leading try scorer for Wigan in 2006.

Chris was given the number 1 shirt at the start of 2007 despite the arrival of former Bradford Northern full back Michael Withers. Previously the number 1 shirt was worn by Kris Radlinski and had been for 12 years and many people believed that Ashton had the talent to be a good replacement for Radlinski. Furthermore adding to his reputation as something of an enigma, Chris made a mixed start to the 2007 season, being criticised for his poor defence under high kicks error-strewn play during the pre-season friendlies and the 28-32 loss to Bradford Northern in round 3; in which he was also sin binned for a professional foul.

[edit] Northampton Saints

On March 19, 2007 it was announced that Ashton had signed to play Rugby Union for Northampton Saints for a reported £140,000 a year, more than double the offer that Wigan put in to retain his services, although this figure was fiercely denied by Northampton. Wigan granted Ashton an early release from his contract, freeing him to complete his cross-code move. ^[1]

On September 1, 2007, Ashton made his debut for Northampton Saints at Franklin's Gardens as a late substitute for Will Harries against London Welsh in National Division One. He scored his first try for the club, with his first touch of the ball, in the same game which Saints won 44-11. ^[2]

So far, Ashton has over a 1 try-per-game ratio in Rugby union, scoring on his debut, for the first team, the following week for Northampton's second team, Northampton Wanderers^[3] and a substitute scoring appearance against Moseley^[4].

Ashton has broken the National Division One try scorer record, scoring 39 tries (and one conversion) from only 25 appearances.^[5]

He is easy to spot on the field, as he habitually wears bright red or (more recently) bright blue boots.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Northampton profile
• England profile

• Chris Ashton Wigan Playing Career Page on the CherryandWhite.co.uk Wigan RL Fansite.