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Ignore the critics - Chris Ashton's jaw droppingly good try-scoring rate revealed

Ashton during the England training session held at the Onewa Oval in 2014

Sometimes it takes for a player to go away and come back for his abilities to be truly appreciated.

Chris Ashton is one of those players.

Ashton left England in 2017 as something approaching the enfant terrible of English Rugby. While many would grudgingly admit his abilities, for others there will also be an asterisk beside his name.

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Be it his tryscoring histrionics or the odd moment of on-field ill-discipline, many just can’t get beyond their perception of ‘Chris Ashton the man’. Ironically, anyone who has ever met him in person will tell you the exact opposite – that he’s as nice a bloke as you’ll meet.

Continue reading below…

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Yet, there’s one point of order that will always be thrown at his critics: he scores tries by the container load. A look at his try-scoring rate across competitions bears out a remarkable ability to score tries.

European Strike Rate – 63%

The 31-year-old wing has scored 39 tries in 62 European Cup matches. What’s more, he made all but six of his European appearances in the elite competition, with those six games coming in his first season of European rugby, for Northampton Saints, when he scored seven tries in the Challenge Cup.

Premiership Strike Rate – 61%

The Wigan-born wing scored 80 in 131 matches between stints at Northampton Saints and Saracens. Only Christian Wade can boast a better try rate in the Premiership than Ashton – and only three players have scored more tries than him, namely Wade, Cueto and Varndell respectively. Expect him to add to this tally.

International Strike Rate – 55%

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In 39 appearances for England and one for the Barbarians, he has scored 22 tries. Realistically you’d have to look at All Black wings to find this tryscoring rate, a comparison which might not stand-up given the high scoring nature of the Rugby Championship.

Top 14 Strike Rate – 104%

The now 31-year-old crossed the whitewash 24 times in 23 matches in the Top 14, beating the Napolioni Nalaga held record by three tries. A lot of those were owing to support lines run off Tuisova and Radradra, but as the saying goes ‘they all count’.

It’s a record that is unlikely to ever be beaten.

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Bull Shark 1 hour ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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