Chris Ashton: I fell asleep naked under the Arc de Triomphe

My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness. This week, we speak to Chris Ashton, the former England winger and Prem all-time record try-scorer about the perfect omelette, his meeting with Queen Elizabeth II and the lie that cost him five years of his career.

If I could only eat one meal for the rest of my life, it would just be eggs. I have about five or six eggs a day in my breakfast omelette, pretty much every morning, with a bit of cheese.

I make a good omelette. The secret is hot oil but low heat. Put the oil in, get it hot, then turn it down. Then put the eggs in and let it do its thing.

I had posters of the Wigan Warriors team on my wall growing up. It would have been Jason Robinson, Martin Offiah, Henry Paul, Kris Radlinski.

And every week, they’d always be at the minis award ceremonies, handing prizes out. They would always be there, two or three of them, every time. I can picture them now, stood at a bar and as kids we’re all waiting to meet them. When I went to the first team, we were always sent to schools just in the community. Just being around, telling stories.

I got to rugby union, and that wasn’t a thing. I was like: “What? Do we not go?” and they’re like: “No, what are you on about?” It shocked me. I’d been doing it every week at Wigan. Maybe it’s something union should be doing a bit more of.

I had a ban for gouging that changed the direction of my career. And I didn’t do it.

If I’d have done it, I’d tell you now. I’ve got no reason not to. I didn’t do it, and these guys just did me over, and they literally changed my career. I cried in the hearing.

Eddie Jones had just got in as England coach. He phoned me and said I was going to be in when he started, after a bit of a struggle with the end of Stuart Lancaster. I was back. I was in. I was like: “Yes, here we go again.” And then these f**king blokes do me in.

Luke Marshall, the Ulster 12, just made up that I put my fingers in his eye. And I’ve no idea why. I’d love to see him and understand why he did it. The physio, some awful physio they had, also wrote a statement saying he feared for the player’s eyesight.

It was my fault putting my hand in that position, but I was just trying to tackle him to the floor. And I got a 10-week ban. I didn’t get in for England. England went on to win the Six Nations Grand Slam. I sat at home and watched it all.

I did play for England again, eventually, but I had to go all round the houses: I had to go to France, I had to come back. It took about five years. By that time, maybe the best part of your career is gone.

My first cap was quite an eventful evening. I got found on the Champs Elysees with nothing but a blazer and a belt on. Dylan Hartley saved my life. I was just asleep on the floor under the Arc de Triomphe.

It was an amazing evening in France, and then after the game, the tradition was you have a drink with everyone in the squad, and it was last game of the Six Nations, so everyone had a good time. We had a really good team manager and he kind of let us go. He was very… giving for the night out.

On the bus, I sang a song, had a drink with everybody, got into a club. And I can’t remember what happened, but then I got on the Champs-Élysées. And Dylan fireman’s lifted me into the back of a taxi.

We met a lot of celebs playing for England; Daniel Craig was pretty cool. Alex Goode went to Taylor Swift’s wedding and he was telling me the names – my mind was blown. Any of the best actors of the last 20 years were at this wedding. And he just met them all. I’d have struggled. I think my head would have blown off. I’d have gone mental.

I did meet the late Queen at Mike Tindall’s wedding. That was very cool. We were just having drinks in the garden and there she was. It was relaxed, casual; she was just chatting to people. We were in a group that was just getting bigger and bigger as all the lads came over.

I’ve never really bought any stupid things, but I bought a car once when I was at Northampton, and I took it in to training. The coach said to me: “If you don’t get rid of that, you’re not playing.”

It wasn’t even that flash of a car! It was a BMW M3 or something. I had to get rid of it the next day. That’s the power they had.

I got a reputation that came from my own error, doing a swan dive in situations that I probably shouldn’t have done.

Someone came to me last weekend, and he said his own coach sent him off for doing a dive like me in a game. And at first, I was like: “Oh, why has he done that? That seems a bit ridiculous.” So then I asked his Dad, and his Dad said: “They were winning by 50 and then he did the dive.”

That’s something that I did. We were beating teams easily, and I did dive. It was f**king stupid and immature. I shouldn’t have done it, and I couldn’t see at the time how people would perceive that.

I didn’t necessarily have someone that I probably trusted or listened to enough to go: “Chris, you’re being a dickhead, stop doing it.” I did have coaches or whatever, but I probably didn’t have enough of a trust in them. I just was too immature to take on the feedback enough.

I do wish I hadn’t done that. It was there to be done at the right time for the right reasons; it wasn’t there as a self-fulfilling thing. I just thought: “I’m having a good time; I’ll do a dive.”

Chris Ashton is a pundit for TNT Sports’ coverage of English domestic rugby