Ashton credits Goode for breaking record

Saracens winger Chris Ashton acknowledged the work put in by his team-mates after breaking the record for the most ever tries in Europe.

Ashton went into the Champions Cup final against Clermont on Saturday tied with former Toulouse back Vincent Clerc on 36 European tries.

And the former England winger notched up try number 37 to open the scoring at Murrayfield when he latched onto Alex Goode’s grubber kick.

Acknowledging the record, Ashton was delighted to take it but paid credit to the rest of his colleagues, and Goode in particular.

“I won’t lie, I’m pretty happy about it,” Ashton told The Independent.

“But I think a lot of it isn’t down to me individually, it’s down to the group of players I’ve been playing with over the past five years and Alex [Goode] has been a big part of that.

“I rely on them, I rely on them all the time, it’s nice for my name to be up there but a lot of it belongs to this club to be honest.”

Ashton will leave Saracens at the end of the season to join Toulon, and hopes that his time with the club can end with another Premiership title ahead of next weekend’s semi-finals.

“I’m going to miss it. Like I said with the try stuff, I’ve had five amazing years here, some of it has been life-changing.

“I’ve had unbelievable highs and definitely some lows along there, and the support I’ve had from the coaching staff and the group of players has been nothing short of phenomenal, they’ve always been by my side so it will be a sad day, it was nice to do something on a high today.

“Obviously we’ve still got next week but I’ll celebrate today with the lads and I’ll enjoy it, and life changes sometime and opportunities arise.

“I think my time now is to move on.”