Position: Winger

Date of birth: 28/07/1998

Heritage number: 1158

Previous club: Swinton Lions

Representative honours: England Knights, England (5 caps)

Warrington debut: vs Wigan Warriors (A), full back, lost 16-10 on 30/01/2020

Honours: Super League Dream Team 2024

Matty Ashton is a powerhouse winger who is Warrington’s main attacking weapon. He is also an established England international who would have played in the 2025 Ashes series but for injury.

He began playing with Rochdale Mayfield, aged seven, and later played for their open age team in the National Conference.

He spent a year in Australia playing for the Mullumbimby Giants in the Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League in New South Wales before signing a one-year contract with Swinton Lions in December 2018.

He took the Championship by storm in 2019 with 30 tries in 25 appearances to be crowned the leading tryscorer and Young Player of the Year.

He signed for Warrington for an undisclosed fee and August 2019 and has made the number five shirt his own with 89 tries in his first 109 appearances.

In October 2021, he scored two tries from full back on his England Knights debut against Jamaica at Castleford.

In 2023, he swept the board at the club’s awards evening, being crowned Player of the Year, Players’ Player of the Year and Vice-Presidents’ Player of the Year.

He made his England debut against France at the Halliwell Jones in April 2023 and was the man of the match after scoring two tries in the second Test against Tonga at Huddersfield that October.

In 2024, he played in the Challenge Cup final against Wigan and won a place in the Super League Dream Team before rounding off the season with three tries in the two Tests against Samoa.

The 2025 campaign was shaping up to be even better when he scored a sensational length-of-the-field try against Wigan in Las Vegas. Ashton intercepted a pass from Bevan French before racing down the touchline. Jai Field’s desperate attempt to stop him only resulted in Ashton losing a boot but he still scored.

Disaster struck in the Challenge Cup semi-final against Leigh in May when he ruptured his ACL and MDL ruling him out for the rest of the year.

Despite needing crutches to get around, his work with Warrington Foundation’s community projects saw him presented with the Keith Naylor Community award at the end of season awards.