1
Jones lays down challenge to snubbed England star Cipriani
By Ben Spratt
England coach Eddie Jones has challenged Danny Cipriani to improve after leaving the Gloucester fly-half out of his squad for the November internationals.
Owen Farrell and George Ford were preferred to Cipriani in Jones' 36-man squad on Thursday for the upcoming Tests against South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia, with the exclusion of the 30-year-old a shock despite his absence from a training camp last month.
Cipriani has enjoyed a fine start to the new Premiership season, named the league's player of the month for September, but Jones believes he has work to do.
"We've gone with two fly-halves. We think Owen and George are the two best fly-halves and they've been consistently in the team since I came in 2016," Jones told talkSPORT.
"We think they are the two guys to lead England forward.
"Danny is the third choice. There are some areas of the game we think he needs to work on. He understands that and now it's up to him."
But there could yet be further opportunities for Cipriani, who made his first start for England since 2008 against South Africa in June.
Discussing Cipriani, James Haskell and Don Armand, Jones added: "They are guys who could come back into the mix. No door is closed.
"We're just looking at every player and seeing what they can contribute. But we think the players we've got in the squad at the moment are the best players."
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Seven Springboks make World Rugby men’s 15s dream team of the year
3
The full list of 2024 World Rugby Awards winners
4
Stephen Donald weighs in on All Blacks eligibility ruling
5
Latest Comments
Then your people must be damn stupid to follow suit. You better start a toy-toy movement, because they are currently in talks to sell the "springbuck". Sorry, I forgot - you people don't do the toy toying - that's the other part of the springbok supporters role right?
Go to commentsIt’s just that we see a lot of comments saying the same things : We will never win a World Cup, we’re too afraid to play away from home. The only thing I want to point out is that, as long as summer tours will take place around June/July, we won’t be sending out A team since Top 14 finales are way more important for the players, for the fan, for the club than friendly Internationals.
I just can’t understand why one particular community (hello Saffas) are so whiny when it comes to French rugby. We get it guys, you are the best team that has ever existed, you won the cup in France, congrats! that’s what you wanna hear?
I just want to point out that as long as you cannot understand the importance of our club culture and top 14, you will never understand the main reason why we send developing team in our summer tours. The average attendance of a safas club during URC is 43% (Stormers) while here in France we have 4 to 5 clubs that have an average attendance at 100%. La Rochelle plays in a full stadium for 8 years!
Off course it’ll help us playing with our A team the best teams in the world, and we would do it if we can play around August to December
Go to comments