Happy to have mojo back thanks to the support of Stuart Lancaster

"You end up thinking so much about what is happening to your form that you go into a downward spiral," he said. "The more you try, the worse it gets and the more frustrated you become.

"At the start, I wasn't too sure the coaches were right in what they were saying to me about the way I was playing. That kind of thing can be hard to take. But I came to realise that they were right, and that I was really lucky to stay in the team. Tries were desperately hard to come by even the trademark broken field runs that at least threatened to end in a score were rarer than rocking horse droppings and defensively, he was all over the place.

Lancaster and company decided he should have the summer off rather than undertake England's three match trip to South America, mentioning that he might like to spend some time improving his kick chase routine and beef packersofficialauthentic.com/authentic-davante-adams-jersey.html up his tackling. It was a sound call, even though he found it "horrible" taking his holidays while his peers were still at work. "It took me a while to let it go," he admitted.

"I understand now where I was going wrong and I feel more confident, more relaxed," Ashton continued. "I'm back to my old self again." Which is welcome news for England, who would like nothing better than to see him tear off into the distance and put a long range try past the Wallabies at the weekend the kind of http://www.packersofficialauthentic.com/authentic-julius-peppers-jersey.html try that illuminated Twickenham on Australia day three years ago.

"That seems like ages ago," he remarked. The two men go back a long way, having played rugby league against each other as small children, joined sporting forces at secondary school and teamed up at Wigan before heeding the union call.

"I went all the way through school with Joel," the wing said. "I remember us running around when we were six or seven and I played with him from the age of 11. If anyone had said a few years ago that we'd play rugby union for England together, I'd have offered long odds on it happening. Back then it never entered our heads that we'd move to union, so it's brilliant that he's put himself in a position to challenge for a place. Is he nervous, building towards a game in which he has so much to prove individually as part of a side asking so much of themselves collectively? "Not really," he said with a shrug. Visser suffered a fractured shin hardly the best www.packersofficialauthentic.com/authentic-davante-adams-jersey.html of injuries for a wide runner while playing for Edinburgh against the Italian side Treviso at Murrayfield five days ago and will not play again this year. He may even struggle to feature in the Six Nations Championship, which begins in February. Further medical examinations revealed additional damage to ankle ligaments, which will require surgery.

England blow as concussion rules out Parling

Geoff Parling, the Lions Test lock from Leicester and one of England's senior forwards, was concussed during this afternoon's training session at the team base near Bagshot and will miss this weekend's opening autumn international against Australia at Twickenham. It is a heavy blow for Stuart Lancaster's team: Parling runs the line out and has become an influential team member since his debut last year.

Geoff Parling suffered a concussion during training (Getty)

This unfortunate development leaves Joe Launchbury of Wasps, Dave Attwood of Bath and the in form Courtney Lawes of Northampton fighting for two engine room places. packersofficialauthentic.com/authentic-julius-peppers-jersey.html The rest of the pack picks itself, with Billy Vunipola of Saracens expected to beat Ben Morgan of Gloucester to the No 8 shirt and join his brother, the loose head prop Mako, in the starting XV.

Outside the scrum, the decision to send the uncapped Gloucester centre Henry Trinder back to Kingsholm guarantees an international debut for the Saracens midfielder Joel Tomkins. Another Sarries player, Alex Goode, has also been released and therefore loses his place at full back. The Harlequins scrum half Danny Care has also suffered a fall from grace, with Ben Youngs and Lee Dickson contesting the No 9 role.

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