Taking Irish job wrong, says Ashton

Former Ireland coach Brian Ashton returns to international rugby on Saturday admitting: "It was a mistake leaving England in the first place."

Ashton, snapped up by England boss Clive Woodward for the daunting Southern Hemisphere tour, is back after a three-month break since he resigned as Irish coach.

Woodward has started tapping the 51-year-old's rugby brain as England prepare for Test matches against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

And Ashton says he's relishing his new role, although the bitter Irish experience has clearly left its mark.

The former-Bath coach walked away from an acrimonious relationship with the then Ireland team manager Pat Whelan, despite having more than five years of a lucrative contract left.

"It all seems like a bad dream now," said Ashton, looking comfortable and relaxed with life among England's 50-plus travelling party.

"It's almost as though the Ireland thing never happened. I have shut it out of my mind completely and realise that I made a bad call.

"To take the job was poor judgment on my part, it was the wrong place to go. I didn't particularly enjoy it, and as far as I am concerned that is the end of the story.

"England is where my heart is. It was a mistake leaving in the first place and I am delighted to be involved in the national set-up again, preparing players who are England's internationals of the future."

Ashton, assistant coach on England's 1985 tour of New Zealand, is working alongside Woodward, John Mitchell and Phil Larder, fine-tuning a squad containing 20 uncapped players.

"Basically, my task is to operate with those players who aren't involved in the next game, concentrating on skills and technical work, while developing ideas to take England forward," he added.

"I look at the game through similar eyes to Clive and I am extremely excited about England's 18, 19 and 21 age group players, which is the area I will be concentrating on."

Ashton helped Bath clinch the 1996 English League and Cup double, so it represents an astute move by Woodward in handing him such a critical player-development opportunity.

"I've been impressed with the training so far, the players are remarkably perky considering they've endured a long, tough season back home," Ashton said. "They are desperately keen to get to grips with Australia on Saturday, especially after the uncomplimentary things being said about them here.

"The lads know they are underdogs, but that gives them a spur to prove they are not going to lie down and let Australia walk all over them. I'm sure that won't happen."

Woodward, who was happy with two weekend work-outs, gave his players the day off yesterday as Brisbane basked in temperatures of 70F plus.

Some of the squad travelled south to Queensland's Gold Coast, while others went shopping in Brisbane or soaked up the sun before getting down to serious business again today. "Clive is well aware that things could be mentally and physically over-done this week," Ashton said.

"The players have got a lot being thrown at them, so it's important they are not overloaded."

Ticket sales for the third Cook Cup International remain slow with 21,000 being bought by close of business yesterday. Sun Corp Stadium's capacity is 40,000.

"We would expect to hit the 30,000 mark by Saturday. For some reason, there always seems to be a late ticket rush for Brisbane Tests," said Strath Gordon, the Australian Rugby Union's media and communications manager.