Over the next three weeks, Chris Ashton faces a steep upward climb that could take him to the highest level of the game.
First he has two sizeable obstacles to surmount with Northampton in the Heineken Cup, starting tomorrow afternoon with a must-win match at home to Perpignan, followed on Friday by one of the club game’s steepest challenges, a visit to Thomond Park to play Munster.
Ashton will then link up with England’s elite squad to prepare for the RBS Six Nations Championship, aiming to prove to Martin Johnson, the team manager, that he has a head for the heights of international rugby. Three weeks today, he could win his first cap against Wales at Twickenham.
Such has been his momentum this season, there seems every chance that Ashton, 22, will take the final few steps to the summit.
He is the joint leading tryscorer in the Heineken Cup, with five in four matches, and is also top of the Guinness Premiership charts with nine tries.
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Not bad for the wing from Wigan who began his journey to rugby union’s loftier peaks only 2½ years ago, firmly rooted at base camp after crossing codes from rugby league.
“He was as raw as they come,” Jim Mallinder, the Northampton director of rugby, said. “His strength, finishing, support running and one-on-one defence, we had no problems there, but his understanding of the game and his knowledge of contact skills was non-existent. He’s come a long way since then.”
Ashton recalls a moment when one of his new team-mates accused him of standing up to play the ball through his legs, rugby league-style, after he had been tackled. “I’m not sure it was true, but that was what it looked like to them,” he said. “It took a lot of time to learn some of the skills.”
There was, however, an unmistakable gift for scoring tries, the sort of finisher’s instinct possessed by the best forwards in football.
He scored with his first touch for Northampton and amassed a record 39 tries in National League One. He stalled a little last season after the club’s return to the Premiership, but in the past few months his command of the skills required of a rugby union wing has looked complete.
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“The idea was that I was young enough to come over [from rugby league], unlike some players who’ve run out of time just as they’ve got to the England set-up,” Ashton said, calling to mind Andy Farrell, Henry Paul and Lesley Vainikolo in recent times. “I’m hoping I’ve got a good ten years left in me playing for England.”