• Help Support The Rugby Forum :

Cueto issues Ashton warning

TRF_Cymro

Cymro The White
TRF Legend
Joined
Mar 1, 2006
Messages
13,888
Country Flag
Wales
Club or Nation
Barbarians
Six-Nations-Twickenham-England-v-Italy-Chris-_2562403.jpg


Amid all the euphoria surrounding Chris Ashton's remarkable introduction to Test rugby, his England team-mate Mark Cueto issued some words of caution.

On Saturday Ashton became the first Englishman to score four tries in a Five or Six Nations international since Ronald Poulton achieved the feat against France in 1914.

Having also touched down twice in England's victory over Wales, Ashton has already equalled the record for one Six Nations campaign held by Will Greenwood (2001) and Shane Williams (2008).

The 23-year-old Northampton wing, who only made his Test debut in the final game of last year's championship, now has a remarkable nine tries from nine Tests and he is riding the crest of a wave.

Six years ago Cueto made a similar impact on international rugby but his feast of eight tries in eight Tests soon turned to famine as defences got wise.

Cueto has warned Ashton he will have to deal with the challenges of being a marked man - starting against France at Twickenham in two weeks' time.

"Teams start to target you and they will maybe throw extra defenders (at Ashton)," said Cueto, who ended an 18-Test try drought in the 59-13 victory over Italy.

"The Italians were already quick to pick up on our support lines.

"There was once or twice when Ashy got pulled back when potentially he was going to score another try.

"Whenever you do your analysis on the teams you come up against you pick out the threats and without a shadow of a doubt, teams will be looking at Ashy.

"He has scored six tries in two games and is the out-and-out threat with England at the minute so he will be put under a lot of pressure."

That said, Cueto believes the unique way Ashton reads the game will make him very difficult to stop.

"There is an art to what he does and it is unbelievable. He just anticipates everything," said Cueto.

"He will be tracking a play from 10 metres offside just in the hope that they will make a line-break and then he will be in that position.

"A lot of the times, if you are not offside, you are never going to be there.

"In the past, wingers have almost trailed the play from an onside position and if someone did make a line break, you are 10 metres behind the play and it is difficult to get there."

Even if France do target Ashton, Cueto believes that can only benefit an England side which, for the first time in a long time, boasts attacking threats across the field.

"It is not a case of shutting Ashy down and we stop winning. If you throw two men at Ashy then there is going to be a gap somewhere else and someone else will exploit it," Cueto said.

"Shontayne Hape and Mike Tindall in the middle were looking strong and busting through tackles and Ben Foden at the back is unsung at the minute.

"He is doing some great work and unfortunately not getting over the try line - a bit similar to myself (in recent games).

"We have people like Ben Youngs and Toby Flood at nine and 10 - I could go through the whole team and talk about threats."

England scored eight tries against Italy - two more than they managed in the whole of the 2010 Six Nations.

Cueto was getting sick of having to answer questions about his try-less streak which stretched back nearly two years and was in complete contrast to the way he was playing.

"It is nice to end the so-called drought," said Cueto.

"My form is as good as it has ever been. I feel brilliant every time I go out there and play. The tries haven't been coming but every other part of my play has been good.

"Hopefully I can continue that and the tries might just start rolling in."

http://www.planet-rugby.co.uk/story/0,25883,16024_6750131,00.html
 
I hate when articles have ***le like that,
Like I saw one before when it said
"Flood issues warning to England team mates" when in reality he was just saying how Wales will be a hard team to face

Only one I've actually seen was Lamonts dressing down of the whole Scotland team, yesterday
 
One thing the end of March brings: The Tabloid media stop pretending they like rugby and the soccer-like news articles finish with the Six Nations.
 
I'm a Journalism student at Chester Uni. The tabloids have to take headlines like this because they're sensationalised and selling the story to the reader. It looks far more appealing and catchy than simply stating the obvious, which in reality isn't usually that much. Commercially this will sell their paper but you're right with what you're saying!
 

Similar threads

L
Replies
8
Views
2K
holdenator6
H
H
Replies
3
Views
1K
lineens weegie army
L

Latest posts

Top