Hello all at Ruckingball, and, as they say, thanks for having me!

Well, I have to admit it’s mean a crazy few months for me. I’m enjoying my time in international rugby immensely. It’s all new to me, and with a lot of the lads also in the same position we’re having a lot of fun. Best of all there’s nothing to fear.

Around the youngsters such as Floody, Ben Youngs and myself, there’s also the experience of Tindall, Cueto, Moody and Easter to add that vital blend of experience. We’re big into giving each other help and support. Each person gets a voice and is empowered, which is the best thing about the management. If you’ve got something to say, you’re encouraged to say it, and Cuets is huge in terms of the help he gives me, especially in terms of alignment and defence; equally if I see a way of unlocking the opposition, I’ll speak my mind too. It’s a healthy place to be, more like a club side than an international side, which is great.

By saying that, from a technical perspective, I am aware we have things to work on- on a team level, Forwards moving the ball around a little better, improved defence and so on,. Defensively, we’re striving to hit hard in the middle channel tackles and to force the opposition to go around us. We’ll back our pace out wide to defend those trying to squeeze around, so we’re pretty clear on what we need to be looking to do.

On a personal level, I’m working hard on some other aspects of my play; I’m particularly keen to improve my defence of box kicks and my tackle technique (by that I mean aggressive tackling with a full wrap around- in Rugby league we’re more prone to bounce players without wrapping our arms around them, which could be deemed illegal in Union). No-one is the complete Union winger and I’m aware too that positionally I’m learning all the time. In fact, I know it’s a cliché, but something like Ruckingball would have been huge help to me a few years back. As a kid you want to be coached by the best (my Dad was that- he told me to point that out! Hahaha!) and tapping into the experts on here would have been great. There’s nothing else like it out there.

We’re mixing up the plays a lot at the moment, and both Cuets and I are spending as much time in the 12 and 13 channels as our centres themselves. We’re looking for the mismatch all the time, getting ourselves running at props and locks, and we know the space is exactly in that midfield channel. It’s just about finding it, creating the mismatch and executing it well. It’s a fixed play from both set piece and ruck play to have either Mark or I running the arc to hit the 13 area at real pace, so don’t be surprised to see us there again in the next few weeks.

I’ve been getting a lot of stick in the dressing room about my new nickname, courtesy of the Press. The Predator…I’m not so sure about it myself, but I’ll take it as a back-handed compliment. What I will say to all young players is that I have a fundamental need to score. It’s like an addiction for me, a drug fix, if you want. Never ever stop believing you can get there to take that final pass. Don’t give up on believing that your support is vital, because it is. I know, with the amount of possession we create that there will be opportunities, and I’ll get myself up  off the floor utterly convinced in my ability to ‘be there.’

So my message to you is share that belief with me.

That’s all for this week. I’ll be back on next week to give some thoughts about the French game. Bring it on!

Speak then,

Ashy

Chris Ashton