Geraghty pays tribute to Ashton

Shane Geraghty hopes the recent upheaval at Twickenham has not jeopardised his England prospects.

Geraghty won both of his caps under Brian Ashton, who was removed as England head coach last week, including a stunning cameo against France in last year's Six Nations.

It was also Ashton who convinced Geraghty to reject an approach to play for
Ireland after representing this country at Under-18 level.

But the appointment of new England supremo Martin Johnson has removed the 21-year-old fly-half's key ally at Twickenham just when he had battled back from a succession of injuries.

The World Cup finalists depart for their two-Test tour of New Zealand in June and Geraghty hopes Johnson's ascension will not hinder his Test career.

"I owe Brian a lot. He brought me back from Ireland to the national academy set up," he said. "If it wasn't for him then I don't think I would have played for England because he was such a big influence on my career when I was younger.

"He gave me my first shot at international rugby and hopefully now he's gone I'm still in the coaches' minds. I trained with the Six Nations squad until I was ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury and John Wells, Mike Ford and Jon Callard — who are still there — gave me good feedback.

"All England players want to be in New Zealand this summer. The last game of the Six Nations when we beat Ireland showed that the future is exciting."

London Irish star Geraghty, who will start Saturday's Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse at Twickenham, is convinced pinning his colours to England's mast was the right decision.

"It was a difficult choice at the time because when I was approached by Ireland I hadn't started a match for the London Irish first team," he said. "It was a shot at playing international rugby maybe before I deserved it.

"In that way it was tempting but when I sat down and thought about it, it wasn't so hard. I'd lived my whole life in England, I knew the standard of the players that were coming through in English rugby and wanted to be a part of that."