I am not sure this is 100% correct, I think the term used was to keep Ashton in RL we would have had to made him the highest paid teenager in the game.

Rumours I have heard is that Ashton was willing to negotiate to stay in League on a "fair" salary with Wigan but Mo would not budge.

Either way I do not think it is a massive loss for Wigan and the game, he is a good player with brilliant pace but when you look at the quality of Sam at the moment, Ashton wouldnt even come close.

This thread highlights some of the short term narrow minded attitude of wigan and rl fans in particular.

Ashtons attitude was probably wrong at the end of his career at wigan - he admits himself that during his time at northhampton, getting dropped from the 1st team was the best thing that could have happened to him.

He was only a young kid at the time, Noble was probably treating him like he treated the rest of the young players at wigan, yet he was being picked at FB - one of the most responsible and exposed positions, in a team that wasn't playing particularily well.

By all accounts, Mo didn't really seem to appreciate him - whether because of cap restrictions or whether he had his eye off the ball (probably both).

IMO -with better management, (e.g. if MM had got his hands on him earlier, and IL was showing that the best youngsters were highly valued) he would have had to take a strong look at himself - something he only did a couple of years later at Northhampton, and we possibly would have had a great winger to go with a great FB/half in sam.

With all credit to Goulding, I know who I would rather have on the wing - can anyone see Goulding scoring the sort of try ashton scored on saturday?

Ashton is the sort of attacking back we are crying out for in the England team, big, quick, good feet,always in support.............I can't think of any other young (or otherwise) english back who is anywhere near him.

Unfortunately - when you compare the crowds and coverage the RU team get compared to the 4 nations, the abject performance of the england RL team, compounded by the farce of appointing Archer as the ref in the final - the gap between credibility of RU and RL is widening, and many of the comments on this thread show why we will probably never expand and grow our game significantly beyond the heartland.......

I must say, I did watch the match V Wallabies and I did quite enjoy it. I'm not saying it's a good game but for the first time, I actually did appreciate RU.

Anyway, on Ashton, personally yeah he played well and looked lethal when England attacked but the commentators or national press forgot/didn't want to admit his defensive frailties yesterday. When he does have a bad game for England, which he will, everyone does, I think that will get picked up and hammered.

In terms of catching up with RU, RL NEEDS a national stadium. One which could be filled with every game. Start off with a 25,000 seater and build up from there. We need proper marketing, better sponsorship. I know Gillette sponsor the 4N but there is no such advertising on thier products - why? The RFL and the IRL seem to take a soft stance on advertising matches, how can anyone expect to draw in the crowds when only the Northerner's know anything about it?

Attacking yes, but there's a lot more to a winger's (or fullback's) game than that, in RL. Defense, work rate and off-field attitude are 3 aspects of his game that were lacking at Wigan at the time. It's possible that those could have been improved under Madge, though it's equally likely he'd have gone the same way as Ainscough, a similarly attacking winger with similar shortfalls in other areas.

The benefits of union are that his defence is never really going to be exposed, so if as you say (you guys have seen a lot more than i have) his defence was the weaker part of his game and his attacking was very good, then he suits union more. In hindsight it suits him better therfore he made a wise choice.

I agree. There has been an awful lot of hysteria on the back of his try on Saturday and this always happens when any ex Wigan player performs well. The reality is that Ashton was far from the finished article at Wigan when he left and in no way justified the kind of salary that he was after. Even without the salary cap, an excuse that some people use for him not being kept, I am fairly confident that Wigan would not have payed the kind of money that it would have taken for him to stay, simply because he was not worth it. Wigan could have easily given him a huge contract and he could well have ended up leaving the club in a similar way to Ainscough or like Penny at Warrington.

Ashton has lots of pace and great back up play but had very little else and his weaknesses arent tested in Union the same way as they were, and would be tested now, in League. At Wigan his defence was always poor, he was poor under the high ball and he had a poor work rate and attitude. He was a poor centre at academy level and he never particulary impressed me on the wing in the first team. He was good at times at full back in the first team, due to his pace and back up play, but had little else and his weaknesses far outweighed his positives. He doesnt even compare to our present full backs, Roberts or Tomkins. These players have the same sort of pace and back up play as Ashton but can also do a lot more in both attack and defence than Ashton has ever shown. Some people are a lot more suited to Union than League and I think Ashton is one of them.

Good luck to the lad.

had a great year on the field ..but a really bad one of it.

Had to laugh at the little bit of sensationalism in the article - 'He was the hottest property in league'. Wishful thinking I feel.

Eastmond at Sts is rumoured to be looking at Union at some point. We simply don't develop enough class players to be able to shrug our shoulders when English-qualified players leave.

A central RFL 'defence fund' could be a good idea to protect RL from poaching to a degree. Not that it would stop a player leaving for ridiculous money, but if a player (I'd stick for maybe under 25 years old) has a bona fide written offer from RU, and a fund was available to help a club keep them by topping up their offer, I wouldn't have a problem if that extra was exempt from the Salary Cap. It would have to be very carefully managed, with clubs having to show that their offer to the player was in line with what they are paying others, but that could be done with a little foresight. There'd also have to be agreed limits to which the fund could go for any one player.

Its not as if we're talking about RU coming in for hundreds of players a year. We're only looking at players who clubs want to keep, and the requirement for a written contract offer from RU would stop most shenanigans anyway.

There lies the problem. This suggestion is tantamount to a heresy for many RL fans and administrators.

People on here are shrugging their shoulders about the loss of Ashton because they have no choice. In reality, most, if not all, Wigan fans think as you do - but they're now very used to being shouted down hysterically when they propose even the slightest moderation to the salary cap, so most don't bother any more.

Good idea - we could call it "Club Great Britain" or something!

Didn't something similar to that happen to Radlinski?

I think the original Club GB was aimed at marquee players rather than promising juniors.

The basic idea was to enable British clubs to hang onto those players who were known to be on RU's shopping list, with the net result that Great Britain wouldn't be weakened.

Of course its most notable effect was enabling St Helens to hang onto King Kieron; Great Britain were neither weakened nor strengthened in his case, because he'd rarely played for them before and he rarely played for them after (not that this stopped him being cannonised after he retired).

Despite that almightly con, I think the basic idea was a good one. Something similar would be well worth investing in now, because you can guarantee that if the RU press continues to mythologise Chris Ashton into the next best thing, they'll be back again and again looking to pick over our bones.

There,s some rubbish put on here !! Chris Ashton was a young lad in his Wigan days and was a great prospect, he was very good going forward and quick. However he did have some weakness in his defence, which can be worked on by coaching.

That fact is ML would not put his hand in his pocket at the time because to many big money buys were already here doing nothing. Who can blame a young lad for taking the money when Wigan weren't willing to offer much, at the time when he was one of our better players. He made the move and took at while to settle in and is now one of the best backs union, and good luck to him !!!

When tries like that are scored against the Aussies in what ever code its fantastic, and when its Wiganer who played amateur rugby round here, its even better!!! We should be getting behind him not saying he was rubbish at Wigan, his defence was crap etc. He was young and some on here are jealous, simple as that. , good on him !!

By the way I,am from Wigan and coach a junior RL team and don,t know him.