Sale Sharks confirm signing of Chris Ashton
Chris Ashton has completed his return to the Premiership with Sale announcing his signature.
“This really feels like ‘going home’. I’ve always thought, in the back of my mind, that I’d return to the North to play rugby and I’m delighted to be joining Sale Sharks.” Ashton said.
“They have developed an increasingly strong squad, including Jono Ross, whom I remember in his younger days at Saracens. He left and has become a considerably more mature player!
“In Toulon, I’ve added to the experience I gained at Saracens. There are many players at Sale Sharks with whom I’m looking forward to playing.
“I’m not coming to rest on my laurels: I feel I’ve got a lot of rugby left in me and would like to make an impact and help to take the club to their winning ways of 2006.”
Welcome to the #SharksFamily @ChrisAshton1! ?
Read more here ?https://t.co/Q2vONXZLZP pic.twitter.com/AEDMPm90nL
— Sale Sharks ? (@SaleSharksRugby) July 3, 2018
Sale Sharks’ Director of Rugby Steve Diamond added: “Chris is obviously a World class signing. When we were looking around, following the announcement of the return of Rohan Janse van Rensburg, we wanted to keep the makeup of our Back Three as exciting as we can.
“Chris wanted to return to this country to fulfil his potential with England again, and we thought that he’d fit in well here.
“He’s a multi-talented, superb professional who has experienced the benefit of the successful culture at Saracens.
“We look forward to giving him a warm welcome in a fortnight’s time. He’ll join the exciting players already at the club and if we secure another two or three of our forward targets, we’ll have a squad capable of reaching a top four placing.
“We’ll continue to offer our supporters top-level entertainment at the A.J.Bell Stadium.”
The confirmation comes just hours after Toulon announced that they’ve agreed to release the 31-year-old.
“At the request of the player, Toulon have decided to release Chris Ashton from the remaining two years of his contract. Ashton was no longer in a psychological condition to play in France and with Toulon due to important family problems”, the Top 14 club said in a statement.
A sa demande, Chris Ashton a été libéré de son contrat avec le @RCTofficiel …https://t.co/1bDwxwYnLC
— RCT – RC Toulon (@RCTofficiel) July 3, 2018
After a record-breaking season in France that concluded with a starring role for the Barbarians in their win over England at Twickenham, he had been strongly linked with a return as Sale Sharks his destination as reported by RugbyPass last week.
With Ashton keen to push his case for inclusion in the England team at the Rugby World Cup next year and Mourad Boudjellal’s recent comments that Ashton’s future was in the player’s own hands, the writing was on the wall regarding a return to the Premiership.
The former Saracens and Northampton Saints man played in the unaccustomed position of full-back for Toulon last season and still managed to break the Top 14 try scoring record, crossing the whitewash 24 times, five times more than closest rival Nemani Nadolo and three more than the previous record, which was held by Napolioni Nalaga.
It is those performances which have prompted Sale to move, with RugbyPass understanding that they see Ashton as an option at 15, especially with both Denny Solomona and Marland Yarde already in the mix on the wing. Ashton will help fill the void created by Mike Haley’s and Will Addison’s departures to Ireland.
The move will once again make him eligible to play for England, although he will have a fair amount of competition to win a spot in the wider squad, let alone the matchday 23.
Jonny May and Mike Brown both did their stock no harm in South Africa this summer, whilst Elliot Daly had the free pass of adapting to a new position at international level. Both Anthony Watson and Jack Nowell will be available again next season, too, whilst he will also need to beat out soon-to-be club teammates Solomona and Yarde.
He will, however, add to the options in Eddie Jones’ arsenal and if he can replicate his Toulon form from last season, there’s no reason why he can’t push himself into contention.
Comments on RugbyPass
“See you in the final” from a winning (Irish) team is just away of wishing a team well for the rest of the tournament. It’s actually saying I hope we both make it to the final. Etzebeth was the only player who PUBLICLY said that his team would make the final after that match. Does anyone honestly think Ireland who took 100 years to beat NZ and got hammerred by them in 2019 would for the slightest moment not take the perilous threat as seriously as it should be taken? Getting sick of Boks and Kiwis who spend all year every year trying boasting about how great and humble they are and then accusing others of arrogance. Respect people by trying to understand them before hitting a pretty humble people with this crap.
12 Go to commentsThe feelings of gratitude I feel when thinking about the Boks is difficult to describe. It really means a lot to people here. I would flat out ask Ox for a big hug if I met him in person. And then probably pass out after the squeeze. Totally worth it.
1 Go to commentsFarrell seems to be an outstanding coach and Ireland a very well prepared team. But they looked like they had no plan B against NZ. Maybe they really were looking past them, as Eben says.
12 Go to commentsMaybe if you come once in your life in France you won’t writte so much nonsense 🙃
1 Go to commentsWhy did they kill 14 people at a gaelic football match? What had happened earlier that day? Dowson sounds absolutely pathetic, believing what the Irish say about his people, rather than believing what his people say about the Irish.
6 Go to commentsI haven't really experienced the Irish as arrogant but I guess the players maybe got ahead of themselves after a big win. Just thought it being Ireland and their love afair with WC QF exits and it being the ABs maybe they would have taken it a bit more seriously. Maybe they did and just lost anyways, who knows.
12 Go to commentsNot surprising, they tend to get very carried away with themselves very quickly. I’ve never seen a team so devastated at the final whistle than those irish players in that QF, you’d think they had lost the final.
12 Go to commentsJust a roundabout way of claiming to great fun. Self -praise is no praise, frenchie.
1 Go to commentsIreland have played the ABs since the first game 1905 a total of 37 times. The ABs have won 32 and Ireland 5 times. If we look since the first WC, then they have played each other 28 times. All Ireland’s 5 wins have come since 2016. So the ABs won 23 games. Since Ireland won their first game in 2016, they have won 5 and the ABs 4 times. Fairly even. Whatever anyone says, beating ABs consistently is bloody difficult, and when you manage to win a few, show respect to them. Period.
208 Go to comments‘Mom'.
1 Go to commentsA specialist in hitting smaller guys hard and late. Serial cheap shot merchant who deserves more than the usual token sanction for such actions.
1 Go to commentsI like to see the Crusaders lose as much as the next non-Crusaders fan, but the fact that most of their best players have not been available this year is being hand waved away like it shouldn’t effect them. It’s no coincidence that their first dominant performance came when they had more of their best players back. This is not rocket science. If they can stay fit their team at the business end of the season will include Tamaiti Williams, Codie Taylor, Fletcher Newell, Scott Barrett, Quentin Strange, Ethan Blackadder and Cullen Grace in the forwards - most of whom have barely, or not played this year. That is an outstanding pack that have not played together this season. McLeod, Havili, Aumua, Reece, and Halfpenny will be a very different prospect behind their first choice pack as well. Having said all that Penney’s record is scratchy at best, but given the players that have left and their injury list I’m reserving judgement. Penney’s appointment, a bit like Foz, has a similar stench of the incumbent having too much say in his replacement. They are lacking a truly high quality and experienced 10 which will make it hard for them to go the whole way IMO, but the list of teams who would want to play them in the finals will be very short.
17 Go to commentsWhere’s this people's champion come from? Irish people yes….other people? Their arrogance has become breathtaking. Not tested? Oh dear.
208 Go to commentsIf a coach having Crusaders heritage is so sacrosanct, why did the Crusaders not pursue Vern Cotter as Scott Robertson’s replacement?
17 Go to commentsFinau is definitely operating on razor thin margins. He hasn’t done anything wrong… yet. But a player going into contact 6 inches lower than he is expecting, without him even knowing, will end in disaster. You can imagine a situation where the pass dies on Edmed and he has to bend down a little lower to catch it at the last second. Finau’s hit would have been catastrophic. The margins are just too fine. He needs to study how PSDT, at 6’7”, manages to drop his tackle height and exert just as much force with close zero danger of taking someone’s head off. Given how poorly NZ has adapted to lower their tackle height, and that this issue which has plagued the ABs for years and played a big part in them not winning the World Cup, I thought NZR and all SR coaches would be prioritising sorting this issue out. If I was Razor I would be on the phone to Clayton MacMillan and Samipeni Finau saying exactly that. Finau is a monster and shaping up to be the closest thing to Kaino since Kaino, but I wouldn’t risk selecting him for the ABs at the moment.
18 Go to commentsThe surprising stat I saw in the Blues game when showing Sotutu equaling the Blues forwards record was that Akira has not scored a try since 2019. Now my memory is pretty bad when it comes to those sorts of the things, I can remember his AB try though, but anyway I can’t see I can remember his last blues touchdown or any in recent years. Surely that still has to be a bogus stat. Maybe excludes SRA games?
3 Go to commentsDude to me looks pretty fast for a big man, nearly 2m and 130kg, in his workout vid he was signed off. Possibly a bit slow on his reads movement wise though, but I’ve not got anything to compare him to. Hope the dude nails it and finds his sport, could have been a devastating lock in rugby if he wasn’t a footballer growing up.
4 Go to commentsWell, does that make it every year Moana has lost it’s best player the following year? Normally it’s more immediate I guess, at least there best player had a follow up year this time.
1 Go to commentsFinally, an answer to Dan Carter.
1 Go to commentsNever read such tripe. He was hit just as he passed the ball which was reviewed and deemed legal by yes the Australian TMO and referee
18 Go to comments