Danny Cipriani is going all out to impress for the Barbarians

Danny Cipriani is going all out to impress for the Barbarians against the Wallabies on Saturday and aims to force his way back into the England reckoning in time for the 2015 World Cup.

http://www.espnscrum.com/england/rugby/story/154763.html

Good luck to him, could be just what England need.

Funny, with all that's written about him, I always thought he played better for Wasps at fullback than at stand off. Was good under difficult kicks and ran extremely well. Any Wasps fans can comment?

Is this any different to the stories his agent put out before the 2011 world cup too?

The same still applies, he needs to be playing consistently well and be based in a country where he can actually attend training camps and matches if he wants to be back in the England side. Right now hes neither, but does have a contract to do the Bachelor.

Him and Henson should make their own show

Who is the biggest tool

My money is on Cips but only by a point

"Every team I've played for, I've always got on with the coach and the system," he said. "I loved my time at Wasps and with England. It was purely for rugby reasons that I wasn't selected."

Touchingly delusional that he believes niggling at teammates in interviews, general petulance at not being chosen and being papped stumbling from ChinaWhites at 4am wrapped around Kelly Brook had no bearing on people's general views of him.

I hope that England appoint Mallinder and that Danny is brought back into the squad. Cipriani needs his @rse kicked nineteen different ways and Mallinder is exactly the guy to do it.

Gatts wrote:Him and Henson should make their own show

Who is the biggest tool

My money is on Cips but only by a point

Henson wins by a long way. At least Cipriani keeps playing rugby, unlike the muppet Henson who keeps appearing on stupid "reality" TV programmes.

Whereas your boy Cipriani has only just signed up to be on a stupid 'reality' tv show, the Bachelor



Fan strikes again

You should go for the England coach job with a fine intellect like yours

Do England need a revolving door at 10?
Do England need the hype and publicity that DC would bring after the RWC?
Do England want a 10 that will play for the team rather than himself?

If they do, DC is the man

Gatts has he actually signed up yet or is he just being touted as the next bachelor?

Doctor grey I am not a Wasps fan but I remember watching that HC cup final - Wasps vs Leicester. Cipriani was excellent at full back. He was even very strong defensively.

It's a shame that Cipriani has let the media and his ego take over his life. He had the potential to be an excellent player. In sport you can't just be talented. You need to be right in the head/mind. The likes of Tango man and Cipriani have the talent but not the right attitude.

Well I always think that any player that is gifted but troublesome in the past should get a clean slate with a new regime.

Bar the tv stuff is DC under contract? I thought the rebels let him go? And for being a Rebel too...! Their hire fire policy breaths hypocrisy...!

maestegmafia the problem is Tango man and Cipriani are gifted and troublesome wherever they go. Until we see evidence to the contrary neither should be considered for their respective countries.

I believe DC is still at Rebels.

The problems Cips has had with the Rebels is typical of his career to date, namely;

1) he can't behave off the pitch (England really don't need anymore of that)
2) he's a liability defensively unless hidden at full back as his front on tackling is weak and he often strays out of the line
3) he is inconsistent, fabulous kicker with speed and vision one week and the next can't slot a goal, make a break or find touch the following.

Admittedly his on field issues have not been helped by a Rebels team who were finding it hard to gel. His off field activites made to look worse by the fact that the press follow him everywhere. You would have thought he would have taken the hint and tried to win some people over by keeping his drinking to the off season and trying to impersonate Wilko during competitions.

It's more talk really which is becoming quite boring. He always seems to say the right things, it's about time we had a reminder of his talents.

I've always rated him as a player but it's been so long now since I've seen him at his best.

Fingers crossed Henry gets to him this week, and he goes back to a strong season with the Rebels. His abilities (when on form) are as ever sorely needed by England.

To quote a popular tv show. He needs to turn up, put up and shut up.


I'd love him to have a stormer for the Barbarians and Henry to come out and talk about his professionalism off the field. Till it happens though it's difficult to take him seriously.

I agree with the above poster who said he looked better at 15, but we need a 10 not a fb and the Rebs' have Beale at 15...

I never had you down as a Strictly fan, yappy.....

I now have an image of yappy looking like a young Len Goodman.

As for DC, while he is still contracted for the Rebels there is minimal chance of playing for England.

Also I just wonder about his application to the game. We all know he put in extra sessions with Margot Wells to improve his speed - however this seemed to be something he enjoyed and was good at.

Does he practice as hard on things he does not enjoy - such as tackling or correcting the flaws in his goal kicking technique. When he kicks at goal he has a very short follow through. this means that he is relying on natural timing - and if that is an iota out he is at risk of decelerating into the ball and mistiming his kicks. With a better technique he will get good strikes when his timing is OK, but not spot on. (For those who play golf teh mechanics are very similar). But is he willing to put in the work?

Gatts wrote:Whereas your boy Cipriani has only just signed up to be on a stupid 'reality' tv show, the Bachelor



Fan strikes again

You should go for the England coach job with a fine intellect like yours

Its not confirmed is it. Whereas Henson has actually done several reality TV shows, played for 3 teams in as many seasons (and I use the word 'played' very loosely) and courted more tabloid column inches with his antics than have been afforded to the phone hacking scandal.

Therefore for you to sarcastically accuse someone of 'fine intellect' simply serves to make you look ridiculous. Again.

Well firstly you should be off fighting a fire not wasting public money, i pay your wages while you lot sit around all day being part time plumbers and playing with your hose

Secondly i pointed out Fan's intellect in relation to him slating Henson for doing tv whilst clearly ignoring that fact that Cips is up for the bachelor

Thirdly, it i touching that you and fan are having a bromance, but a little creepy for you to jump to his defence

Fourthly, i am impressed, after 12 posts you have deduced i look ridiculous, it usually takes at least 50 so i assume you are just looking to make a name for yourself as a wit. Give it up, it doesn't suit you

Fifthly, if you are a fireman here is a little joke for you, very apt
Q: How do you know a fireman is dead
A: The remote control slips from his grasp

Flood, Burns, Farrell and Lamb are all better, but apart from that fact he should definitely feature for England

Gatts, if you're going to question someones intelligence, you need to come over as having some intelligence yourself, which you don't.

Mmm , think you'll find i questioned your intellect not your intelligence but by your premature reaction i clearly should have questioned both, so, for the purposes of being fair, I'll do that now

Don't usually see people like Cipriani man up and recover after they've had a sniff of stardom so to speak with the possibility of attracting more media attention at their fingertips. Can't say for certain whether the plague that is the UK media just has him in their crosshairs or whether he's been asking for it. Either way this should prove to be a test of his substance and devotion, if he can tick these boxes then he might be able to make something of a career. If not, and I say this not as a WUM, he could be doomed to go down as not much more than England's Henson.

Might be worth mentioning that the last thing England need at this point is another dose of headlines sprouting from the wrong reasons.

England rugby fan wrote:Gatts, if you're going to question someones intelligence, you need to come over as having some intelligence yourself, which you don't.

In the mods' defence it's hard to tell how comments like this are meant, whether they're abuse or banter as you suggest Gatts and to me that looks like plain angry abuse, banter needn't be so barbed...

Making Jokes about Dead Firemen to a fireman ... Sort your bant out Gatts

Back to the rugby I Don't think anyone can Deny when DC is on form he is truely amazing on the pitch and has a flare about him. And he has moments of pure genius like his try For the rebels. I honestly cant think of any moments of genius from Flood.

Gatts wrote:

EngInAuck wrote:Making Jokes about Dead Firemen to a fireman ... Sort your bant out Gatts

I think you finger slipped, so corrected that for you.

England rugby fan wrote:Gatts, if you're going to question someones intelligence, you need to come over as having some intelligence yourself, which you don't.

Speak for yourself fan. And Gav is playing rugby, didn't you know he signed for the Blues? He might be orange but he's no muppet, although I can see how you can mistake him for one.

Cipriani is a poor man's Quade Cooper.

Defensively weak, and needs to be hidden away. I suspect he's weaker than Cooper in this respect.

He's got good vision and a hint of improvisational genius about him. But it seems like he's having an internal wrestle been trusting his rugby instincts and falling prey to his English training, which leads to him kicking the ball far to much speculatively, rather than trusting his reading of the game.

A few more seasons in super rugby may have sorted him out, but when you consider the damage just a few seasons in the northern hemisphere did to Luke McAllistair it seems like a long shot.

My opinion is he should follow in Henson's footsteps from here on in.

Gatts wrote:Him and Henson should make their own show

Who is the biggest tool

My money is on Cips but only by a point

Nah - Cips would need to appear on a couple of reality shows first...

This site is becoming almost as vile as the original 606. It started off so well too.

The Mods need to ban posters like Gatts who are just plain offensive.

atuakiwikiwi wrote:which leads to him kicking the ball far to much speculatively, rather than trusting his reading of the game.

McQueen made it pretty clear that the heavy accent on kicking was a team directive.

atuakiwikiwi wrote:A few more seasons in super rugby may have sorted him out

I doubt it, but we might find out, he's still got at least another season down there.

atuakiwikiwi wrote:My opinion is he should follow in Henson's footsteps from here on in.

That can't be good career advice for anybody.

It's got to be better advice than any aspiration to play international rugby again.

Surely better off following Phil Vickery, at least he won something of note ( masterchef)

Ive often wondered what would happen if you paired one of England's first fives with a world class pack and back line.

Last weekend I found out.

atuakiwikiwi wrote:Ive often wondered what would happen if you paired one of England's first fives with a world class pack and back line.

Last weekend I found out.

Ha doesn't help when your pack doesn't care and your backs squander the ball you give them (Fruen, Toeava).

Some of the service Cips was getting was pretty shocking, he did some good things and some not so good things. A solid performance but it won't get him back on the England radar when at the same time Flood and Burns were going head to head and showing much better form whilst doing so.

Well Danny impressed me! I've never seen such a naive and wayward display from a wannabe international. Thanks Cips but no thanks.

atuakiwikiwi wrote:Ive often wondered what would happen if you paired one of England's first fives with a world class pack and back line.

Last weekend I found out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8V7ELqBBjY

Whoever that scrawny guy playing on the right wing was also has a shocker. The line he ran off Fruean on the first wasted BB try scoring opportunity was so hopelessly naive that it made me cringe. Habana should have been shifted to the right wing since most of the play was going that way.

atuakiwikiwi wrote:Whoever that scrawny guy playing on the right wing was also has a shocker. The line he ran off Fruean on the first wasted BB try scoring opportunity was so hopelessly naive that it made me cringe. Habana should have been shifted to the right wing since most of the play was going that way.

I assume you mean the League chap who didnt even know what the positions in Union where and had never played the game before?

Who was it who described the back line as world class in a previous comment?

but at least he scored

Good point PSW, I should have said a class back line except that Pasty league fellow who had a shocker.

The scrawny guy did ok considering he was allegedly taught how to present the ball in contact during the warm up. He did ok ball in hand, made a couple of tackles and threw himself at ruck (mainly to little effect). That alone is more of an input than the two All Black world cup winners on the backrow.

Not sure how great that backline was as neither scrum half showed much in the way of skill. Mortlock was all crash and bash but nothing else and Fruean looked good until he had pass. Toeava is rather average and I think only kept in the AB squad because he is a handy utility player. Habana was the pick of the bunch.

Toeava can be immense when he's in form. He was outstanding in the early part of last years super rugby. I think he has a stress fracture on the hip which has kept him subdued. He tends to be a confidence player and his head goes down easily, which isn't a great trait in the full back. He's also one to suffer from the AB backline merry-go-round. He's played wing, center and full back. Ideally I think he's a center, but the plethora of options there for NZ currently keep him out of position. Have to agree that he was shocked for the BB's. Not sure his heart was in it. He seems to be a bit Piri Weepu in the weight department at the moment.

Kaino was ok without being outstanding. I think he's a little burned out.

So what were saying is that the BBs isnt really a suitable showcase for decideing if a player is genuinly any good or not?

Cipriani impressed no one.

Fruean and Toeava were poor. Toeava was making errors left, right & centre, and Fruean butchered more than a few opportunities, little nuance and hands likes spades.