Chris Ashton is ‘still p*ssed off about England’ as PREM record holder reveals what ‘negatively’ affected his career
Ex-England wing Chris Ashton wanted "way more" from his rugby career.
A new season dawns and the man with the most tries in English Prem Rugby history is joking that he will pay good money to keep it that way.
Chris Ashton, who has retired, is seven ahead of Christian Wade, who has not. For a player unsatisfied with a career most could only dream of, this record matters.
“Last year,” Ashton says, “Wadey scored against Cam Ridl up at Newcastle and I said to Cam, ‘Mate, I will pay you to stop him scoring from now on’. I’d even pay his team mates not to pass him the ball!”
He laughs as he talks but the 39-year-old quickly turns serious when the conversation widens. For Ashton lives with a regret, until now largely hidden, that he did not achieve more.
Wanted way more
“It was alright,” he says. “But you don’t plan on having an alright career, do you? It annoys me. I wanted way more.”
Ashton played for England in both rugby codes and still holds the single season records for tries scored in France’s Top 14 and England’s Champ.
He was joint top try scorer at the 2011 World Cup a year after being Prem player of the season. He won three Prem titles, two European Cups and is the only man in history to reach three figures for tries in the English top flight.
“To be honest I’m still p*ssed off about England,” he says suddenly. “I never really got what I wanted out of it. I never got anywhere near it. It bothers me to this day. I never got to grips with it, really never got going.”
At his best, Ashton was electric, the arch predator. He would unfailingly be there, on the shoulder of the ball carrier, whether in-field or out wide, to complete the job.
In 44 England Test appearances he claimed two Six Nations titles and scored 20 tries, putting him joint ninth on the all-time list. He is the only English player in the Six Nations era to bag four tries in a match.
It is just that by the age of 23, with 80 tries in 88 appearances for Northampton and nine in nine international starts, even Rory Underwood expected him to better the England try record of 49 that he held.
“To a lot of people that (list of accomplishments) might be judged a success,” says Ashton. “But it’s just not. I wanted way more.”
Ashton is talking ahead of the new season which, for him in his role as TNT Sports pundit, kicks off on Saturday at Exeter.
It is three years since he hung up his boots and a man who did not care much for the media when playing, has morphed into a diligent and impressive commentator.
“Is there a case to say I was slightly misunderstood as a player? As a person?,” he asks. “I always thought I had good game understanding, but I never felt I was given the opportunity to show that side of me.
“Wingers don’t generally get a look in, do they? You don’t see many coaches that were wingers. You’re just kind of dismissed, told to go back out wide.
“[Punditry] has given me a platform to break through some of that, to show I actually understand the game and can explain what I’m seeing.
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“People now talk to me who, when I was a player, wouldn’t bother. They’d just have an opinion of me.”
That opinion was divided. He was cast as a national hero by England fans after going the length of Twickenham to score against Australia, then scoring four against Italy.
Others took a dim view of his showboating – the ‘Ash splash’ swallow-dive try-scoring celebration that became his signature. He was accused of arrogance. On two separate occasions whilst out, he was physically attacked.
“I felt I got burnt a few times on written stuff,” he says of his relationship with the media during his playing days.
“But I really struggled, and I mean really struggled, when social media just came from nowhere. It hit me so hard. It was nothing we were prepped to deal with.
“We went from having the national papers, radio and TV – maybe a dozen people – express an opinion on the game, to literally every single person in the world having a voice on it. And overnight, pretty much.
“There was no-one to help, to advise as to how to handle it. It affected me big time in a negative way. I reckon it made me play the game differently, take on information differently. I still struggle now with it.”
By the time he had reached his century of Prem tries – the third of his hat-trick against Exeter in April 2023 taking his haul to 101 – Ashton instinctively knew it was time to quit.
“By the end I hated that winning and losing stress,” he says. “How it dictates you as a person week to week. I really was sick of it. I’d had enough of either being up here, because it’s a win, or down there, because it’s a loss.
“In the role I’m in now I get to go to games on the weekend and still see people I’m familiar with in an environment I enjoy. I’m still involved with rugby without that result-dependant stress. I’m lucky.”
Whether his luck holds will come down, in large part, to how wisely Newcastle have spent the Red Bull money to build a team capable of feeding Wade scoring opportunities.
Of course, given the former NFL running back is 35 and has only one year on his contract at Kingston Park, it may not be too long before Noah Caluori is the one challenging for the record.
Caluori is 20 and marked his first season of senior rugby with a league-high 20 tries. Keep up that pace and he will get to three figures before he is 26.
Could be lethal
“I know!,” says Ashton. “He’s such a big-frame kid and so young. Once he fills out in another two or three years, he could be lethal. He’s got the same star quality as Manny [Feyi-Waboso].
“But second season syndrome can be a thing and he’ll have to add something a bit different to his game because people now know where his point of difference lies.
“I actually don’t think he gets on the ball enough at the minute, partly maybe because his team doesn’t fully understand how he fits into the flow of it all yet.
“He needs to go get it more, pop up in different places, find another point of difference. For what it’s worth, I think he will.”
Coming from Ashton it’s worth a lot, whatever the player turned pundit may think of his own rugby achievements.
Every match of the 2026/27 Gallagher PREM is live on TNT Sports and HBO Max, kicking off tonight with Northampton Saints vs Newcastle Red Bulls from 7pm on TNT Sports 1.