It does not take long in Chris Ashton’s company to get the feeling he is still pinching himself. Since returning to the England fold last autumn he has won four caps, made two starts and scored one try but still he speaks of how surreal it is that only 12 months ago the closest he could get to the Six Nations was a spot of punditry for a France match while running in tries for fun at Toulon.
“Thinking that was a year ago, I’d never have thought we’d be sitting here with me about to play France,” said Ashton. “I think everyone’s in that boat. When you’re younger and you’re in the team, you never think it’s going to be your last game. You think you’re going to have good, long years at it, but that wasn’t the case for me. I understand what it’s like to not be involved and not have the shirt, so it’s a big privilege for me to be back in.”
“I had always thought I wanted to get in here and in the environment and to get to know [Eddie],” he added. “Me being around here would hopefully help us both, and me in terms of getting a chance. That is the way it has fallen, I’m just grateful to Eddie for giving me the chance again. I do think he likes to get people into the environment to get to know them more and see what they’re like as players. I think he’s wise enough and has enough experience to not think of those [different ideas of me].”
Of all the areas of Jones’s squad, the back three is perhaps the most competitive with Anthony Watson still to come back into the fold in the long term and Joe Cokanasiga, perhaps not quite ready to face France, in the short. To force his way into the World Cup squad then, Ashton needs a point of difference.
“He’s a finisher,” said Jones. “We feel that maybe early in the game, as he did against New Zealand, he can find the line for us, could be important. He’s got a good awareness of opportunities. It’s not something that you coach, it’s something players develop at a young age and then continue to develop. He’s a try poacher.”