Many had mixed feelings about Danny Ciprianis omission from the England squad for the Autumn Internationals. Like me however, the reaction was mostly disappointment, with no disrespect to Stephen Myler of course.
Ciprianis career has never been without controversy with the likes of a training ground bust up with Josh Lewsey, stealing a bottle of vodka from a bar in Melbourne and being hit by a bus on a team night out in 2013. Throughout all of this though, many people have questioned many things about the man himself, his talent never being one of those things.
Since returning to Sale he has slowly developed in to a quality fly half, dominating the game and making decisions for the best of the team on the most part. Cipriani has had criticism and had a tendency to be maybe too flashy and disruptive in the past, no such problems now however as he has matured in to a reliable play maker.
Steve Diamond has come out this week and said England were “conservative” by not picking Cipriani, he also went on to say “He’s delivered on the England tour, and he’s turned up in three or four games this year…To not get selceted is hard for us to take” He also stated that Stephen Myler maybe lacked flair, which is true, but he is exceptionally consistent. Which is how Jeremy Guscott felt saying “his kicking is very solid, he appears to be fairly unflappable…not a huge risk taker”
Cipriani was always competing with Myler and Burns for the third fly half berth, as when they are fit Owen Farrell and George Ford are number one and two respectively. Burns has been in-different for Leicester, so it was only a two horse race.
With 12 months to go until the World Cup, Lancaster will start to build the core of the squad and have them all working together in close proximity for the upcoming Autumn fixtures, the Six Nations and then the World Cup.
That being said, my point is time maybe running out for Cipriani to make the World Cup and be an established member of the England squad as a whole if he isn’t involved now. With all of the injuries on the summer tour, he wasn’t the number one choice and now the first choice fly half’s are back fit he is even further down the pecking order. Cipriani has been doing all of the right things of late, and that is all anyone can ask for, I just have a feeling he will never get the England recognition he deserves due to the style the management want to play and the number of quality fly half’s in the country, which is something i am certainly not complaining about!
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