Jeremy Guscott: Sniffer Ashton should get back on scent with Sarries

Whether Chris Ashton likes it or not we all know he has gone to Saracens because he’s got a better contract. If he had not been offered enough money to leave Northampton, he wouldn’t have gone – so I take all the stuff about new challenges and fresh starts with a pinch of salt. He is also a big mate of Joel Tomkins, who joined Sarries last season and who he knows from rugby league days together at Wigan.
Even so, it is still big decision for Ashton to take because the Saracens do not use their wings like most teams, and certainly not last season when they played far more up the middle. If we are to believe what Paul Gustard said last week in The Rugby Paper, Saracens are a much better attacking side than they are given credit for, and Ashton is a great acquisition.
However, if Ashton is to flourish at Saracens then my feeling is that they will have to change their game radically. There are suggestions that the new law preventing teams from holding the ball at the back of a ruck will lead to more running, but my view is that it could actually lead to more kicking from the base, especially with more conservative sides like Sarries, mainly because runners will not have the same time to get ready.
Wingers are more dependent than most players on the style and structure around them to be effective, and that probably explains why David Strettle, another big-name signing two seasons ago, has not had a big impact. So, if a team like Saracens are going to change, and get the most out of wingers like Ashton and Strettle, it could take a radical rethink.
Saracens were found wanting massively last season in Europe, and they must realise that it is time to change game plan. Ashton will want the ball in hand as much as possible – but will his voice be heard?
When he first started for England he was very influential, and appeared to have been heard given the number of tries he ran in. That try against Australia at Twickenham in 2010 was as spectacular as they come. But with success, and a higher profile, there are added pressures. Defences target you, and what you do off the field is also watched more closely.
Ashton’s departure from Northampton was not handled too well and didn’t do him any good. Hopefully, the lessons from that, and from his World Cup escapade with Dylan Hartley and James Haskell, have persuaded him to concentrate on his game. If he plays rugby at his best, then people will be talking about his rugby, and nothing else – and that’s how it should be.
What surprised me with Saracens is that when they won the title in 2011 with a fairly limited game plan, they thought it would work again last season. My view is that when Saracens lost the title in 2010 they played great rugby – but they didn’t believe it was the way to win the big prizes.
It was, and it still is.
What’s the point of buying a player like Ashton if you’re not going to make breaks and create space for the guy? Saracens have to find the balance between big defence and all-out attack, because players like Schalk Brits, Ashton and Strettle want to run with the ball as much as possible rather than chase kicks all day long. Players like Chris Wyles and Alex Goode can attack, so perhaps, with Andy Farrell no longer there as coach, their game plan will be more free.
Ashton is not a Christian Cullen or Jeff Wilson in terms of being a free spirit as a runner, but he reads the game very well and has a good rugby brain. If he can pick little angles off Richard Wigglesworth, Brad Barritt and Owen Farrell then he will score tries, and in terms of rising to the challenge with his new club, I expect him to be successful.
Ashton was fairly quiet on the tour of South Africa, but he stuck at it and did not go backwards, and that is why he is still England’s first choice right wing. He is a proven talented player who has brought his rugby league skills and adapted them to union. Overall, he’s done incredibly well.
He thinks rugby, understands rugby, and he’s a bit like David Campese in showing that you don’t have to be massive to be effective. He sniffs tries like a pig sniffs truffles, and at his best he goes looking for the ball like Campo used to, and is a match-winner when he gets on the end of offloads.
Ashton’s had to cope with becoming an England rugby star almost overnight. At Northampton the banter from his teammates would have been, ‘we’ve made you who you are’, as he adjusted to being a player in demand, with more commercial and media opportunities. He was accused of being arrogant with the ‘Ash-splash’, but it didn’t bother me. A lot of players like having their own signatures. However, with the Lancaster regime it obviously doesn’t fit, and you get the feeling that he’s been told there’s no need to do it, and he’s gone along with that.
Ashton is not the most natural fit with the current Saracens style, but the bottom line is that he is a quality wing, and so should fit into any style. However, if they change, he could be their missing link.