Eddie Jones lays out Chris Ashton’s England return and explains why tour absentees remain out of his squad

Returning Sale Sharks back will return to the wing after featuring at full-back for Toulon, while Danny Care and Dan Cole are offered a lifeline over their England future

Chris Ashton will not be seen in the England No 15 shirt any time soon despite breaking the try-scoring record in France last season at full-back, with Eddie Jones already deciding that his recall to the international side will see him return to the wing.

Jones said on Thursday that he was “delighted” to bring Ashton back into his squad for the first time in more than two years, following his exile after deciding to join Toulon last summer. The 31-year-old has not played for England since the summer tour of New Zealand in 2014, having been left out of Stuart Lancaster’s Rugby World Cup squad the following year and an absentee from Jones’ Test sides ever since.

The only time that Ashton featured in a squad that Jones picked came in his 2016 Six Nations announcement, but a 10-week ban for eye-gouging Ulster’s Luke Marshall ruled him unavailable and his refusal to tour with the Saxons the ensuing summer all but ended his chances of securing an England return. After growing tired with his international career being in limbo, Ashton upped sticks and left Saracens for a lucrative contract with Toulon, where he scored 24 tries last season to break the Top 14 season record and prove he remained among the most lethal finishers in world rugby.

In Jones’ eyes, the door was never shut on Ashton, although the refusal to tour with the Saxons did not help his case in any way, but after bringing him into his 44-man pre-season squad that will convene in Teddington this weekend Jones admitted that he is excited to see what he can do.

“We always had continuous conversations about where he was at,” Jones said. “There is only one selection that we didn’t select him for and that was the Australia tour [in 2016], when he was selected for the Saxons. Apart from that, my memory tends to make me believe that he was unavailable for selection at other times.

“We’re looking forward to seeing him play,” Jones added. “For me it’s about him wanting to play for England, he’s made a conscious choice and we’re delighted that he’s back and we’ll give him the opportunity to progress his career.

“[It] shows a lot about his desire and wanting to play for England and those are sorts of players we want.

Chris Ashton has been named in Eddie Jones' England pre-season training squad (Reuters)

“I don’t think full-back is his best position, I think wing is his best position. The best part of his game is his support play, he has outstanding support play. How he fits into selection will depend on who else is available.”

Chris Ashton dives over for his record-breaking 37th try in European rugby (Getty)

Jones added that he wants to concentrate on the rugby that Ashton plays with Sale Sharks, who signed him from Toulon after agreeing a fee to release his him from the remaining two years of his contact, and will leave the media to focus on more unimportant matters such as the return of the ‘Ash Splash’.

In naming 44 players for this squad, it would take some doing for any surprises to be left out. But the absence of Danny Care, who was ‘rested’ for the tour of South Africa, adds weight to the actual reasoning that he was dropped from the squad, while Leicester’s Dan Cole remains absent too. With 163 England caps between them, they are very much at the experienced end of the scale, but opposite to that is Care’s Harlequins teammate Marcus Smith and fellow former ‘apprentice’ Zach Mercer, who have zero and one caps between them yet also miss out on the training camp.

“We have decided, particularly for a guy like [Care], he needs a really good pre-season,” Jones explained. “He needs to get that spark back and the way he gets his spark back is by having a really good pre-season. I think he has been in work for five or six weeks.

“I chatted to him to a couple of times yesterday and we are hopeful that he will come back to his best. He is an 80-cap player so we want him at his best. Same with Colely [Cole]. Exactly the same. They have both had the chance to have a proper pre-season, which is a luxury these days to have and they have both been afforded that luxury. We are hopeful both of them will come back in absolutely mint condition.

Danny Care remains a notable absentee from the England squad (Getty)

On Smith and Mercer, Jones added: “They are guys who at the moment don’t deserve to be in the top group of players, but that’s not to say they won’t bounce back. Zach in particular had a tough season at Bath. He had a lot of injuries, but I was impressed by what he did in the Barbarians game [in May] and I’d be hopeful he would fight his way back in the future. Marcus had a good first season, but there are areas of his game he will need to develop and he will either select himself or deselect himself.”