Chris Ashton has flyer Rory Underwood’s record in his sights

Chris Ashton runs out in Dublin today outlining his ambition to be England‘s greatest ever try scorer.
The former Rugby League ace would love to etch his name into the Union record book by overtaking Rory Underwood at the top of the tree.
Ashton, keen to help England avenge the hammering they took two years ago in the Aviva Stadium when their Six Nations title celebrations fell flat, knows he has a long way to go.
He has 17 tries in 30 appearances – that’s still 32 adrift of former RAF pilot Underwood who was prolific during the Will Carling captaincy days.
But Underwood took 85 caps to reach his total of 49, and if Ashton manages to play that many times he could well over-take him.
Ashton bounced back from a 13-match try drought to score in the last two wins over New Zealand in the Autumn and Scotland last weekend.
And the Saracens star, whose try in the win over the Scots helped him break into England’s top ten scoring list, said: “It’s an honour to be on the board with so many illustrious names of the past.
“But I hope to be top of it one day. I’d love to be able to sit back and reflect on that fact some time in the future.
“It’s more difficult to score tries these days. But I’m only 25 and been in the team for just a few years. Hopefully, I’ve got many more years left to score a lot more.”
Ashton is flying again after his worryingly long spell without a try.
He said: “It did eat away at me because scoring tries is part of my job. Going so many games without getting one was difficult. Hopefully, that won’t happen again. I certainly feel more confident when I get the ball in my hands that I will cross the white line.”
On England’s latest bid to win in Dublin, he said:  “When we came here two years ago we were bidding to win a Grand Slam.
“But it all went very wrong from the start and we got hammered. We made too many errors.
“Later we just sat in the hotel room watching the French game on TV and found out we had won the title. It wasn’t the way we wanted it to happen.
“This is a better and closer team than the one two years ago.”
GARY FITZGERALD