Matty Ashton (born 28 July 1998) is an English

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who plays as a winger for the

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

. He previously played for

Swinton Lions The Swinton Lions are a professional rugby league club based in Swinton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the RFL League 1 . The club has won the Rugby Football League Championship, Championship six times and three Challenge Cups ...

, where he made his professional debut in 2019. He made his debut at international level for England in 2023.

Early life

Ashton grew up in

Heywood, Greater Manchester Heywood is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, in the historic county of Lancashire. It had a population of 28,205 at the 2011 Census. The town lies on the south bank of the River Roch, east of Bury, ...

, and began playing

at the age of seven with

Rochdale Mayfield Rochdale Mayfield are an amateur rugby league football club from Castleton, Rochdale, Greater Manchester. The club currently competes in the top division of the National Conference League. The club also operates academy teams who are known coll ...

. He later attended Hopwood Hall College, where he was coached by Matt Calland.

Playing career

Early career

After playing for two seasons in Rochdale Mayfield's open age team in the

National Conference League The National Conference League (NCL) comprises the five levels of the British rugby league system at the top end of the amateur pyramid below the professional RFL League 1, League One. It comes under the jurisdiction of the Rugby Football League ...

, Ashton spent a year in Australia, where he played for the

Mullumbimby Giants Mullumbimby Giants is a rugby league side from Mullumbimby, New South Wales, Australia which competes in the Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League competition. Mullumbimby Giants is one of the oldest rugby league clubs in Australia, playing its ...

in the

Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League The Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League (NRRRL) is a rugby league competition run in the far north of New South Wales, Australia. It is run under the auspices of the New South Wales Country Rugby League, Country Rugby League. The league formed ...

. After a successful trial, Ashton signed a one-year contract with

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

side

in December 2018. He became the league's top try scorer during the 2019 season, scoring 30 tries in total, and won the Championship Young Player of the Year award.

Warrington Wolves

In August 2019, Ashton was signed by

club

for an undisclosed fee. He made his Super League début for Warrington against

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

in January 2020. In round 5 of the 2023 Super League season, Ashton scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in Warrington's 38–20 victory over

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staffor ...

. Ashton played 25 games for Warrington in the 2023 Super League season and scored 18 tries as Warrington finished sixth on the table and qualified for the playoffs. Ashton played in the clubs elimination playoff loss against St Helens. On 8 June 2024, Ashton played in Warrington's

2024 Challenge Cup final The 2024 Challenge Cup Final was the 123rd final of the Rugby Football League's Challenge Cup knock-out competition. The final was contested by Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves. This was the first time since 1990 that both teams had met in t ...

defeat against Wigan. Ashton played a total of 25 games for Warrington in the 2024 Super League season and scored 27 tries as the club reached the semi-final before losing to Hull Kingston Rovers.

International career

On 28 October 2023 he scored two tries and won

Player of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

in his second game for v .

References

External links

Warrington Wolves profile
1998 births Living people 21st-century English sportsmen England Knights national rugby league team players England national rugby league team players English rugby league players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Rochdale Swinton Lions players Warrington Wolves players {{England-rugbyleague-bio-stub