Steve Borthwick hails Chris Ashton's winning mentality as former England wing visits Leicester Tigers

Steve Borthwick has hailed Chris Ashton’s winning mentality, suggesting that the wing’s abrupt exits from three other Premiership clubs will not stop Leicester Tigers from offering Ashton a chance to rejuvenate his career.

Ashton visited the Tigers training ground on Tuesday as he looks to secure a return to competitive rugby a month after his departure from Worcester Warriors in December.

Telegraph Sport understands that Ashton did not take part in team training with Tigers at Oval Park and has not yet been offered a contract, although the 34-year-old free agent has been the subject of interest from a number of other teams.

Ashton is a former Saracens team-mate of Leicester head coach Steve Borthwick, as well as veteran scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth. His time at Worcester ended amid reports of disharmony with the Warriors’ coaching staff, following similar departures from Harlequins and Sale Sharks before that.

His try-scoring record, however, is not in question. Ashton sits third on the all-time list of Premiership try-scorers with 89. That puts him one shy of Mark Cueto and three behind Tom Varndell, who has led the standings since February 2017.

“We go a long way back,” said Borthwick on Tuesday afternoon. “We played together many, many years ago. I met with him and had a chat just to see where he was at. It’s the first time I’ve spoken to him in a long time. It was really just a sound-out conversation.”

Borthwick also coached Ashton when the latter won what will surely be the last of his 44 England caps between November 2018 and February 2019.

“My experience of Chris is someone who is determined to win, very driven and very, very competitive,” Borthwick added.

“When I played with him, I always enjoyed that. It