The reason Wigglesworth now admires Chris Ashton more than ever

Interim Leicester boss Richard Wigglesworth has paid Chris Ashton quite a tribute at his latest midweek media briefing. The 30-something ex-England pair go way back, first playing together at club level with Saracens for numerous seasons before getting reunited last spring when Ashton became a free-agent addition to Steve Borthwick’s Tigers roster.

Leicester went on to win the Gallagher Premiership title, defeating Saracens in a memorable Twickenham final last June. Now fresh from their latest win over the Londoners, a Welford Road fixture last Sunday where Wigglesworth picked Ashton on the wing, the former scrum-half has spoken about how helpful his former teammate has been now that their roles are suddenly very different at the club.

It was mid-December when Wigglesworth retired from playing with immediate effect in order to take over from the England-bound Borthwick as the emergency head coach until the end of the 2022/23 season. That resulted overnight in his relationships with teammates changing as he was now the boss rather than a fellow player with them in the dressing room.

That could have created awkwardness but in the case of Ashton, Wigglesworth has been chuffed by how his friend has helped him find his feet in the Leicester head coach role without blurring the lines between coach and player.

“A ball of energy is Chris,” said Wigglesworth when asked by RugbyPass to assess how Ashton has fared so far in a season where the next assignment for Leicester is this Saturday’s Premiership trip to London Irish.

“I’ll tell you what he has been really good with me: we are obviously pretty close, we played for a long time together at Saracens. But he has kept that (separate). He probably knew how tough the role was for me in terms of how it happened, the retirement and stuff. He was really good for me in terms of how professional he has been with that relationship.

“Whenever I have had to have a one-on-one with him or any conversations with him, he has kept it very coach-player. He could have if he wanted to try and pull on the personal relationship and he hasn’t.”

Ashton had bounced around a number of Premiership clubs without making much of an impression until he was snapped up this time last year by Leicester, Borthwick taking a gamble that the veteran would be a good fit for the Tigers despite his troubled spells with Worcester, Harlequins and Sale.

Twenty-four appearances and 10 tries later, Wigglesworth explained why Ashon has proved invaluable to Leicester. “Because Chris is a professional who wants to win and who wants to get trained well.

“In the environments where that doesn’t happen, he might have ended up struggling whereas he came to us and immediately was like this is a serious setup and I think he knew it was time he had to go right this is now or never. So we got him at the right time but I think we were a good fit for him as well.”

Having played himself until the age of 39, Wigglesworth has nothing but admiration for veteran players such as Ashton who keep putting the necessary effort in. “It’s your mentality to want to do it because it’s harder when you are older but only because you have done it for so long.

“So do you want to train in the same way, do you want to keep adapting, do you want to keep trying to move your game on, have you got the hunger for every cold training session every morning, every night away, have you got the hunger to do that? If you have and you’re lucky then you have got a chance. All the guys in our old brigade are like that.”

Speaking of good fits, how does Wigglesworth rate his own first two months as interim head coach, a position he will hold until the end of the season when he leaves to become an England assistant under Borthwick?

“It’s a very humbling job in terms of how much you get wrong because you have got to make so many decisions, there are so many little things that happen every day that you’d always want back. I’d struggle to put my finger on one because there are probably hundreds of little things that I have got wrong because it is that fast-moving and that fast-paced that you have to take it.

“The thing I have done is I have learned so much. The one bit of the job I have really enjoyed is how hopefully I have improved and how much you learn in this job. The next time that I’m given the opportunity (to be a head coach), this experience for me will be invaluable.”

How has Wigglesworth managed his work-life balance as a rookie head coach? “My wife would say I don’t have a work-life balance. That is what she’d say. I have got three kids, got a boy who loves rugby and football so I get to go and watch him, try and organise that time if the games allow.

“My eldest girl is into netball and hockey… and I have a three-year-old Margot who is busy shall we say, so whenever I am at home and not in the office she definitely distracts me,” he quipped.