Eddie Jones lifts the lid on his public and painful break-up with Danny Cipriani after England snub
'Have you ever had a girl tell you that she doesn’t love you? You don’t remember the rest of the conversation'
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Your support makes all the difference.You can forgive Eddie Jones for getting fed up with being asked about Danny Cipriani, but the England head coach will have known that by leaving him out of his squad for the autumn internationals, question upon question about what he needs to do will have flooded his way.
“I love it mate, I love this question,” Jones said on Thursday with his mischievous grin on display.
Truth be told, Jones was in good spirits as he faced the media at Twickenham, which was certainly a surprise given the borderline ridiculous injury crisis that he has to deal with over the next five weeks. Both Vunipolas will miss the four autumn internationals, as will Joe Launchbury, Chris Robshaw, Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph – players who would have expected to have been in this squad – while the likes of Nathan Hughes and Sam Simmonds are also missing.
But the only problem at fly-half is who to play, and unfortunately for Cipriani, he is not in the mix. The public clamour for Cipriani to not only be included in the squad but be elevated to England’s starting No 10 has never been greater, yet Jones has decided that both Owen Farrell and George Ford are ahead of him in the pecking order.
“At the end of the day, it comes down to a judgement,” Jones explained. “So people think he played well, well maybe I don’t think he plays that well. And that’s a judgement and we’re all entitled to judgement, and at the moment my judgement is the most important judgement.
“That doesn’t say other people’s judgements are wrong. They can be right. But the judgement is that he’s the third choice in our hierarchy of positions at the moment, and that’s where he sits. And I’ve made it very explicit to him, what he needs to work on. And that’s all I can do mate. And I can’t share that with you.
“I rang him on the phone. Whenever you tell a player they’re not in, the rest of the conversation is a bit of a blur. Have you ever had a girl tell you that she doesn’t love you? You don’t remember the rest of the conversation.
“It’s like with a player, when you tell them they’re not in, they say ‘yes, yes’ but they don’t hear anything. We follow that up with further information.”
It has been a very public, painful break-up for Jones and Cipriani. Just four months ago it was Cipriani’s moment of magic teed up Jonny May to score the match-clinching try against South Africa, yet his conviction for common assault in August appears to have had an impact on his place in Jones’ plans. Jones says he has told Cipriani what he needs to do to get back into the fold, but as the Australian himself points out, is he listening? “I can’t help that,” Jones adds.
His absence very much suggests that newly-named co-captain Farrell will be considered as a fly-half rather than an inside centre, and Cipriani’s omission is only one half of that equation. The other half is the very large prospect of Manu Tuilagi or Ben Te’o playing outside him. Or, as Jones teases, both of them in what would prove one of the biggest back lines England have ever fielded, if not the biggest, especially if Joe Cokanasiga is handed his debut this autumn.
“Portugal is going to be fun,” Jones said of Tuilagi and Te’o, the grin returning, with both facing a full test of their fitness during next week’s training camp in the Algarve following long spells out with injury.
In fact, Te’o is yet to play a minute this season, having injured his thigh ahead of the summer tour with England and also picking up a calf strain last month as he neared a return. The New Zealand-born centre is set to get a few minutes under his belt this weekend as he is due to be a part of the Worcester side that takes on the Ospreys in the European Challenge Cup, but in given that he has barely played any rugby in what will be six months, he is surely an unlikely candidate for the first autumn international against South Africa two weeks on Saturday.
Tuilagi is a much more likely candidate to play against the Springboks, but having not started a test for England since 2014, there are still huge doubts over the Leicester Tigers powerhouse.
“The hard thing at the moment is that I don’t know the condition of Manu and Te’o,” he added. “Until I get my hands on them, then that picture will become clear.”
He’s right. The picture is very, very blurry right now, with Henry Slade and Alex Lozowski also thrown into the mix and the potential to renew the Ford-Farrell axis that Jones has not ruled out. With all that to take into account, it is at least understandable why he does not want Cipriani in there too to further muddy the waters, but if England fail to click against the Springboks and, more importantly, the All Blacks, an embarrassing climbdown to recall Cipriani could well be on the horizon.
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