I know the games not really much about it apart from being party poopers for France, but Chris Ashton has been handed a debut start on the wing to replace Ugo Monye against France. Good to see the lad doing well, he didn't handle it well at the time he moved however he was only a naive young lad and to be honest don't blame him for increasing his salary significantly when Mo offered him peanuts.

I bet when he walks out on Saturday deep down he wishes he was still full back for the current leaders of SL.

Indeed. A real loss to our game, but fair play to the lad he has made a real go of it in union and has been rewarded with an England cap.

Hope he goes well.

bloody hell a full 60mins and this thread hasn't been blocked?

when he got in the England squad i opened a thread on here to discuss it. a few didn't like him and so the thread was locked. thank god this hasn't been.

Good news for the lad. i actually think he'll be a success too.
it'll be the first time for a very long time that i will ensure i'm sat down to watch the full 80mins of a yawnion game. hope he does well.

The last thread about him was locked (a tad pathetic really)

Im pleased for him, i found him an honest young lad who (according to him) Mo had it in for him! Rugby Union?? yes its totally dire!!

All the best to him

Good luck to him hope he does well and does our town proud. Great feat considering he's only been playing the game for a relatively short period.

His accent has come on a treat going off his sky interview earlier so he's fitting right in.

He'll have a spiffing game i'm sure.

Hope he fails and puts all league players off going to union.

He left this fine club at the first oppurtunity.

It's like an ex bird who was wife material going off with an ugly geek and then you celebrating their wedding day with Ashton playing for England RU, I say fook him!

Lmao.

He plays for Northampton. Have you ever been to Northampton?

I assure you the accents are more Uxbridge than Oxbridge. (I bet you don't get that either do you?).


Honestly, try opening your mind a bit more. Northerners don't wear flat caps and race pigeons you know (well I do ofc, but that's just me.........)

Playing infront of 80k in a international is one of the reasons he went, we cant manage to wigan on a sat afternoon and now most clubs at the other code are getting better crowds than SL clubs

It was abit of banter mate.

I'm ever so sorry it didn't meet your approval and consider me told

Sorry again boss.

Are they? Considering it's a national sport, second only maybe to football in terms of marketing, advertising and press coverage, union's club crowds have been less than impressive. With the exception of Leicester there aren't too many British club sides drawing in huge crowds. The double headers at Twickenham boost the average but I'm sure it was still only around 12,000 for the Premiership last season.
Also worth noting that the rugby league Championship and Championship 1 had a higher average attendances than their rugby union equivalents last season.

Sorry mate. That is a large pile of male cow droppings and you know it.

He went for the money, pure and simple.

He was NOT offered any promise of an England spot, and in fact he ended up playing in the 2nd division of the inferior code (imo).

He annoyed the fan base at Wigan by wearing the RU team's shirt before he'd even announced that he was leaving.

As to him playing for England - So what?
He may as well be playing for the national mixed-doubles foot-rubbing team for all I care.

And finally - A great loss to our sport - No, sorry. He was a rookie-year, reasonable fullback.
We liked him because prior to Ashton, we had been treated to such high-class backup fullbacks as Wes Davies and Denis Moran (he seemed to play there more than he should have).
Frankly, I was worried every time Radlinski left the field.

Now that he's gone - I couldn't care less TBH.
It just annoys me that some people would like us to wish him well - If you want to, that's fine. Just don't expect us all to be as forgiving to a lad who took a large cash offer and wanted us to match it for someone who had barely served the first year of his apprenticeship.

Give me Phelps, Roberts OR Richards any day of the week.

I bet he isn't.

Representing your Country at ANY sport has to better than playing for your hometown club at any other sport (well it is to me anyway)