“It’s an interesting way to end your career†Martin Johnson chuckled when asked about Chris Ashton’s two swallow dives in England’s 59-13 rout against Italy. The former England captain was in a particularly light hearted mood after seeing his England side decimate an admittedly poor Italy side, even raising a smile when Aston elaborately dived over for England’s eighth try of the match.
After being handed a dressing down for showboating after his two tries against Wales in the opening game of the tournament, Johnson will perhaps be more forgiving of his talented young winger as he looks to win the Grand Slam for his country for the first time since 2003 -The head coach will be happy to see him back-flip over the line if he can keep his rich vein of form.
His performance against Italy was electrifying. He typified a new-found hunger amongst the England team as he burst through alongside any line break for any sniff of a try time after time. The first try of the day set the mark for what was to happen for the rest of the afternoon. After the immaculate Toby Flood waltzed through an inviting hole in the Italian defence, Ashton was the quickest of all to react as he ran alongside the Leicester fly-half to receive the ball and dive under the posts.
Like a football striker with the smell of a goal in his nostrils, Ashton is always the first to react, to pounce upon any opportunity, and is always happy to run in a simple overlap as he is pelting the length of the pitch to score the try of the year, as he did against Australia in the autumn. His support lines were excellent as he displayed a natural, predatory instinct to cross the white line.
His four tries on Saturday take his tally to six for the 6 Nations already, remarkably putting him as joint-top try scorer in the history of the tournament already alongside Wales’s Shane Williams and England centre Will Greenwood. He will surely move past the total and lay down a mark that will remain for some time; nine tries in nine games for the Northampton man indicates just how important he is to the English cause.
If England were excellent, Italy were poor as they threw away and progress made in the narrow defeat against Ireland last week. James Haskell doesn’t possess the pace of Ashton, and nor should he considering he is twice the size of the 23-year-old, but he managed to replicate Ashton’s heroics as he strolled through the most inviting of gaps in the Italian backline to touch down. Italian head coach Nick Mallet looked shocked in his post-interview, describing his side’s performance as “one of the worst†he had ever seen. With England fielding their most inexperienced front-row in the absence of Andrew Sheridan, Italy were gifted an opportunity to get their claws into England. Experienced prop Marco Castrogiovanni was sent to the sin-bin as Italy saw any hopes of a shock victory disappear.
But England won’t worry about the problems Italy face; they will be busy basking in the glory of a job well done. With a break from the action this week before the game of the tournament in two weeks-time against France – where England are slight sports betting favourites – Johnson as ever will emphasise the problems in England’s performance; their sometimes faltering execution will be top of his priorities. The swallow dive of Chris Aston will probably be a lot further down the list.