Northampton Saints: Ashton pledge delights Mallinder
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JIM MALLINDER says it is excellent to hear Chris Ashton talking of using the Six Nations to win a place back in the Saints side.
Ashton was left out of the Heineken Cup clash with Munster amid reports that he had fallen out with the Saints director of rugby and walked out on training.
Mallinder chose youngster Jamie Elliott and Vasily Artemyev as the wingers for the clash at Milton Keynes, with Ashton subsequently confirming he would be joining Saracens at the end of the season when his contract runs out.
There was speculation that Ashton had played his last game for Saints, but Mallinder said he still has a future but he has to prove his worth and win his place back.
Ashton said he would do just that after helping England beat Scotland in the opening RBS 6 Nations game, saying he has ‘four more chances to prove to Jim that I can play in Saints’ team’.
And Mallinder was delighted to hear those words from the 24-year-old.
“It is excellent,” said Mallinder. “It is just what we want from our players. You have got to deserve your place in any side and show that you are good enough.
“That is exactly the attitude we want from everybody at the club.”
When Ashton returns from playing in the Six Nations in March there will be just five Premiership games left, and Mallinder will be hoping he is back to his best to help fire the club to a first league title.
Mallinder also revealed that England lock Courtney Lawes could play against Gloucester this weekend.
The Jimmy’s End giant has been out for five weeks after injuring his knee in the New Year’s Eve Premiership win over Newcastle. But Lawes has trained with Saints this week and Mallinder is hoping he will be fit enough to play a part at Kingsholm.
“Courtney trained today,” said Mallinder. “He trained out on the snow and we will just have to see the reaction from that. If there is no reaction to that we might see him in consideration for the weekend.”
But Mallinder revealed Tom Wood is still sitting out of training and is some way from being fit after injuring a toe.
“Tom is still in his boot and not running on his foot yet,” said Mallinder. “It will be a couple more weeks.”
There is bad news for Brett Sharman. The hooker had an operation on his knee injury and Mallinder confirmed he has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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