SAINTS: Plaudits for Ashton
Saints ace Chris Ashton was hailed as one of the best finishers in the country by boss Jim Mallinder after his phenomenal try-scoring run continued against Treviso.
Ashton touched down twice in the 30-18 bonus-point win to make it seven tries in his last three games and a remarkable 13 in 13 matches for the season.
And the Guinness Premiership top try-scorer is now top of the charts in the Heineken Cup with five in three games in his first campaign in the biggest competition in European club rugby.
Mallinder said: "He is certainly one of the best players around in terms of his finishing and his all-round game is improving, so we are delighted with his progress.
"Chris is playing well for us. Every week he is scoring tries and his general play is improving, he is only young and he can only get better.
"It is like all players, they have all got parts of their game to work on. Anybody who saw Chris in division one saw what a fantastic try-scorer he was and still is, but he has parts of his game to work on and he is getting stronger in all those areas."
Ashton was called up to the England squad for two days during the autumn internationals to cover for the injured David Strettle.
But now it seems only a question of when rather than if the 22-year-old former Wigan Warrior earns a full-blown call-up to the England squad, with Martin Johnson fine-tuning his options for next year's Six Nations.
"It is up to Martin Johnson to decide when he is ready," said Mallinder. "Chris is a finisher and a poacher. He understands where he needs to be at the right time, that is one of the things rugby league does very well, the support runners and he has certainly got that."
Saints had to come from 13-3 down to beat Treviso, and Mallinder knows Saints need to improve if they are to make it 10 points in two games in Italy this Saturday. Worryingly Saints scrum didn't function well, but Mallinder feels that can be ironed out.
"The scrum is not a concern," said Mallinder. "We did get penalised on a number of occasions and a lot of that was from the referee and the way he was calling the scrum. Different referees do call things differently and that is something we need to be smarter on."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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