Another Kick in the Teeth for Danny Cipriani.

thomond2006

England elite player squad:

Forwards: S Armitage (London Irish), S Borthwick (Saracens), G Chuter (Leicester), J Crane (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), L Deacon (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton), B Kay (Leicester), L Mears (Bath), T Payne (Wasps), T Rees (Wasps), S Shaw (Wasps), A Sheridan (Sale), P Vickery (Wasps), J White (Leicester), D Wilson (Bath), J Worsley (Wasps).

Backs: D Armitage (London Irish), M Banahan (Bath), D Care (Harlequins), M Cueto (Sale), H Ellis (Leicester), T Flood (Leicester), R Flutey (Brive), D Hipkiss (Leicester), P Hodgson (London Irish), U Monye (Harlequins), O Morgan (Gloucester), M Tait (Sale), M Tindall (Gloucester), J Wilkinson (Toulon).

England Saxons squad:

Forwards: R Blaze (Leicester), D Cole (Leicester), A Corbisiero (London Irish), N Kennedy (London Irish), C Lawes (Northampton), M Mullan(Worcester), T Mercey (Saracens), L Moody (Leicester), L Narraway (Gloucester), D Paice (London Irish), C Robshaw (Harlequins), W Skinner (Harlequins), G Skivington (Wasps), D Ward-Smith (Wasps), R Webber (Wasps), N Wood (Gloucester), B Woods (Leicester).

Backs: N Abendanon (Bath), B Barritt (Saracens), D Cipriani (Wasps), B Foden (Northampton), S Geraghty (Northampton), T Ojo (London Irish), S Myler, (Northampton), P Sackey (Wasps), J Simpson (Wasps), D Strettle (Harlequins), J Turner-Hall (Harlequins), S Vesty (Leicester), D Waldouck (Wasps), R Wigglesworth (Sale), M Young (Newcastle).


Jonny Wilkinson who has not played since September 2008 has been selected ahead of Cipriani for the England Elite Player Squad.

What the hell is going on? It's like the opposite of the Stephen Ireland Saga, this time the coach is imposing the exile.

I wonder how long Kelly Brook will stay with Danny "Club Rugby Standard" Cipriani.

LowOdour

Whats the big suprise? Ive yet to see him ever shine in a match (maybe I havent seen enough games of him), but think he is hugely overrated.
Famous for been kelly brookes bit now and he seems to enjoy that lifestyle.

stephen_n

Heard that yesterday, you'd have to wonder what he did to piss johnson off!

thomond2006

stephen_n wrote: »

Heard that yesterday, you'd have to wonder what he did to piss johnson off!

That's what I'd love to know!

Stev_o

He was rushed back from a serious injury into full on internationals against the big 3 in a struggling England side, then had went back to a ridiculously struggling Wasps side for the rest of the season.

Anyway he's the first choice OH, don't be fooled by the EPS. Wilko is a unknown quantity and Flood is still out with a achiles, they are allowed to make as many straight swaps when injuries occur and chances are he'll be one of the first changes to be made.

Still they are some literally bizarre selections made by Johnno and really i think England would be a lot better now if they had of let Ashton continue on.

anonymous_joe

Victimised by the England set up who rushed him back. In essence he's been blamed for England being shíte for five years.

I know that's an exaggeration, but basically he's coming back from a very bad injury, and his club side were dire last season. Not much anyone can do in those conditions.

Real FM

What a ****e squad! I suppose if the players aren't there the players aren't there. After watching Ireland getting baited through the decades by England it's so good seeing us have a much superior squad.

A little bonus that Cipriani isn't there. He's one of those guys I can't stand...for no reason whatsoever.

thomond2006

Why was Nick Kennedy dropped to the Saxons?

I mean Louis Deacon!, jaysus....

[Jackass]

stephen_n wrote: »

Heard that yesterday, you'd have to wonder what he did to piss johnson off!

Played for Wasps!!!! :eek:

I think Cipriani has the potential to be amazing, he destroyed Ireland before, but his form through all of last season was poor and England have plenty of options at 10 that seemingly they want to explore, so not a massive surprise that he's dropped.

Interesting to see Wilkinson back....I wonder if he'll ever fully recover and be the player he once was again. I wouldn't write him off, but he is sensational when at his peak.

But Cipriani is one of these Hollywood players anyway...kind of like Gaven Henson, who have some great games (as most top flight professional players do) but also court the limelight when they're off the pitch...so when they're good, their impact is exacgerrate and they're god like status....but as with both of them, they're not special, and lose form just like any other player, but this is A LOT more highlighted, discussed and blown out of preportion than it would be for say, Horgan to lose form for a couple of months, not a big deal is made about it, as was the case, and then he got all the plaudits he deserved when he rediscovered his form.

I don't think it's good for the player to be in those shoes and it makes it a lot harder to come back from set-backs.

And I think Johnson is very aware of this.

Also it's quite possible he has an ego, which wasn't really Johnsons style anyway when he won the world cup with a superb team mentality and no "stars" (with the exception of the likes of Wilkinson or Robinson - but purely on their ability and in no way courted it off the field).

marco_polo

Is he not just an English James Hook, very talented footballer but showing few signs of the tactical awareness or consistancy needed to be a top class out half. Having said all that worthy of a place in the squad.

Stev_o

thomond2006 wrote: »

Why was Nick Kennedy dropped to the Saxons?

I mean Louis Deacon!, jaysus....

Because he got LI captaincy when Casey was injured turned into a Mr "Im the best player ever i look down on the rest of you" then proceeded to hang on the wing. Toby Booth solved this by giving the captaincy immediately to Hodgeson. But yeah my opinion of Kennedy has shrunk dramatically after that little stunt.

Snickers Man

LowOdour wrote: »

Whats the big suprise? Ive yet to see him ever shine in a match

[quote=[jackass]]I think Cipriani has the potential to be amazing, he destroyed Ireland before[/quote]

There's your answer, LO. Twickenham 2008.

remus808

Stev_o wrote: »

Anyway he's the first choice OH, don't be fooled by the EPS.

How clueless are you, Cipriani couldn't even make it off the Saxons bench this summer. Myler is definitely the one in line to be brought up to the full squad at the moment.

remus808

Stev_o wrote: »

Because he got LI captaincy when Casey was injured turned into a Mr "Im the best player ever i look down on the rest of you" then proceeded to hang on the wing. Toby Booth solved this by giving the captaincy immediately to Hodgeson. But yeah my opinion of Kennedy has shrunk dramatically after that little stunt.

Never heard anything about that, are you saying he got a bit of Tom Croft syndrome? Was it just his workrate onfield or was there some sort of offield incident aswell?

Stev_o

karmabass wrote: »

How clueless are you, Cipriani couldn't even make it off the Saxons bench this summer. Myler is definitely the one in line to be brought up to the full squad at the moment.

Myler having 0 caps so far in his first year as a professional in the GP. For what it's worth i personally think that Myler should be taken as the number 1 OH for the time being but MJ will bow to the pressure to play Cips.

Also lay off the name calling mate.

RE Kennedy well you could see it on field that his attitude was very self centred rewatch the Bourgoin game and you'll see that he pretty much wanted to be the guy that got all the light and was one reason why LI lost that day.

Judgement Day

The pretenders came (Cipriani, Flood, Good) and went but now the Master is back and, who knows, if he doesn't get injured anything is possible! There are plenty of other good players in the squad too - if you can look past Steve Borthwick - and it could be England's comeback season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM-c8GeI1Vc&feature=related

Chucky the tree

A lot people seems to forget just how young Cipriani is, he's only 21. What was sexton doing at 21? Cipriani has plenty of time ahead of him to get his game back on track. I think MJ is doing the right thing by not picking Cipriani. Give the lad a chance to get some form back at Wasps before you throw him back into the lions den.

itsallaboutheL

stephen_n wrote: »

Heard that yesterday, you'd have to wonder what he did to piss johnson off!

Kelly Brooke



*gets coat*

thomond2006

I'd pick an off form Cipriani over Andy Goode, who is not good!

sm.org

I think MJ is attempting to get Cipriani to work for his position rather the just hand it too him. His attitudein the recent Churchill cup games was shocking. The only good thing about having him on the pitch was the regular close ups of Kelly in a low cut top, num,num,num,num.

At the end of the day Wilkinson is the greatest OH of our generation and even if he's only half the player he was I'd still have him in the squad.

remus808

thomond2006 wrote: »

I'd pick an off form Cipriani over Andy Goode, who is not good!

Goode may be one-dimensional but he isn't a bad player.

"Goode was nominated for Zurich Player of the Season 2004-5[2] and the PRA Players’ Player of the Year[3]. He also ended the season voted player of the year by the Leicester Tigers members and players[4] and in March 2008, Goode became the all-time leading points scorer in the Guinness Premiership, overtaking Johnny Wilkinson[5"

Chucky the tree

Goode is an excellent club player but he's not a good enough to be a top international, and there's no shame in that either. He's had a brilliant career and fair play to him.

darcy.jonny

thomond2006 wrote: »

England elite player squad:

Forwards: S Armitage (London Irish), S Borthwick (Saracens), G Chuter (Leicester), J Crane (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), L Deacon (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton), B Kay (Leicester), L Mears (Bath), T Payne (Wasps), T Rees (Wasps), S Shaw (Wasps), A Sheridan (Sale), P Vickery (Wasps), J White (Leicester), D Wilson (Bath), J Worsley (Wasps).

Backs: D Armitage (London Irish), M Banahan (Bath), D Care (Harlequins), M Cueto (Sale), H Ellis (Leicester), T Flood (Leicester), R Flutey (Brive), D Hipkiss (Leicester), P Hodgson (London Irish), U Monye (Harlequins), O Morgan (Gloucester), M Tait (Sale), M Tindall (Gloucester), J Wilkinson (Toulon).

England Saxons squad:

Forwards: R Blaze (Leicester), D Cole (Leicester), A Corbisiero (London Irish), N Kennedy (London Irish), C Lawes (Northampton), M Mullan(Worcester), T Mercey (Saracens), L Moody (Leicester), L Narraway (Gloucester), D Paice (London Irish), C Robshaw (Harlequins), W Skinner (Harlequins), G Skivington (Wasps), D Ward-Smith (Wasps), R Webber (Wasps), N Wood (Gloucester), B Woods (Leicester).

Backs: N Abendanon (Bath), B Barritt (Saracens), D Cipriani (Wasps), B Foden (Northampton), S Geraghty (Northampton), T Ojo (London Irish), S Myler, (Northampton), P Sackey (Wasps), J Simpson (Wasps), D Strettle (Harlequins), J Turner-Hall (Harlequins), S Vesty (Leicester), D Waldouck (Wasps), R Wigglesworth (Sale), M Young (Newcastle).


Jonny Wilkinson who has not played since September 2008 has been selected ahead of Cipriani for the England Elite Player Squad.

What the hell is going on? It's like the opposite of the Stephen Ireland Saga, this time the coach is imposing the exile.

I wonder how long Kelly Brook will stay with Danny "Club Rugby Standard" Cipriani.

like the opposite of the stephen ireland saga ......... or maybe more like the andy reid saga perhaps

mc23

I thought Cipriani was playing some brilliant rugby before he got that bad injury. 2 games stand out for me, against Ireland in the 6N in and down in Thomond against Munster for wasps. I think if had contiued that form the lions number 10 jersey would have been his. He only a shadow of that player now.

Amabokke

Danny Cipriani is not a world class outhalf and it's really no surprise. He is ok but were shown the ropes by a rookie outhalf in Pienaar in November.

The fact is his name souns better on a hollywood script than the player himself and with "BIG" Kelly next to him it is easy writing for the newspapers and media.

Move on.

d'Oracle

I think he is handy.

He had bad luck with the leg break, has had a form slump and has fallen out of favour.

He has a lot of talent, has all the physical weapons and the technique to be a top outhalf. But I suspect the lack of a chance at a run as well as maybe psychological/ mental issues are holding him back.

Which wont be helped by the media crap.

Still, he gets paid to play rugby and gets to bang Kelly Brook.
I admire that.

Amabokke

I think the best way for this lad to prove himself for international is to perform well and consistent in every game in the HC, Guinness leagues.

d'Oracle

Amabokke wrote: »

I think the best way for this lad to prove himself for international is to perform well and consistent in every game in the HC, Guinness leagues.

Sometimes the obvious is the best......

Stev_o

Amabokke wrote: »

Danny Cipriani is not a world class outhalf and it's really no surprise. He is ok but were shown the ropes by a rookie outhalf in Pienaar in November.

The fact is his name souns better on a hollywood script than the player himself and with "BIG" Kelly next to him it is easy writing for the newspapers and media.

Move on.

He got a terrible broken ankle just like TOL and was thrown the minute he was deemed fit by the England staff, he hadn't even played a single game with Wasps AFAIK, and was started against the three full test sides.

No one in their right mind would do that to a player who hasn't found time to find their feet after a serious injury and why MJ did it is beyond understanding.