Danny Cipriani ... is he worth the risk?

joggerjayne | 08:19 Wed 07th Jan 2009 | Sport

7 Answers

Danny Cipriani's kicking is seriously off form. He had a bad game for Wasps against Harlequins this weekend. Even his own coach, Shaun Edwards, said on Monday that his kicking has become a 'real issue'.

Shaun Edwards says that he's kicking too slowly, and not kicking high enough. He uses a drop punting style, instead of the traditional spiral kick. Edwards describes Cipriani's style as "a nightmare for coaches".

Cipriani has been responsible for several chargedown tries against Wasps this season.

Last year, he was responsible for chargedown tries against England in games against South Africa, and the Pacific Islanders, and Italy.

England's first 6 Nations game (also against Italy) is on 7 February. Is it worth taking the risk, and hoping that Cipriani has a brilliant 6 Nations? Or does every player in the team need to be 'solid' and 'reliable', rather than potentially amazing, but actually a bit shaky?

Dart's ??

Man Utd - Derby

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beejay1124

JJ-his inflated ego doesnt help him either

joggerjayne

Question Author

I agree bj.

I think we (not you, obviously) need a safe pair of hands (and feet) rather than a glory boy.

jno

he may yet make it as a literary hero

http://www.rugbytoday.co.uk/sport/RUGBY-No-kni ckers-at-Twickers.4849137.jp

But you're right about the chargedowns. Can't he do what in a cricketer would be called remodelling his action? Beats me how he's got so far in life doing it wrong (perhaps at lower grades oppositiion players are slower) but someone should be showing him how to do it right. A nightmare for coaches? That's exactly what coaches are for, isn't it?

He's got a way to go but he does have a good eye for a gap - which implies some sort of instinctive feel for rugby that a lot of England players don't seem to have.

joggerjayne

Question Author

I'll look out for those books, jno ... =0)

You're right about DC. He does have an instinct for the flow of play.

But at the same time, isn't he potentially a weak link?

I think that points are scored by Backs, but games are won by Forwards. If the Forwards are getting good possession, and have solid scrums, lineouts, etc, all that the Backs have to do is ...

... not give the hard earned possession back to the opposition.

Rule 1 ... if your team is in possession, then the other side cannot score.

Rule 2 ... if Danny Cipriani is in possession, then the other side have a fair chance of scoring at any moment.

jno

true, but I think he can work on his weaknesses without losing his strengths. If his coach can't help, get a new coach.

Actually, there's a lot more possession handed over these days as people under the experimental laws prefer to hoof it downfield for touch rather than run it in the opposition half for fear of being turned over. Doing this means the other side throw it into the lineout, but in effect they now have to make the same decision about what to do with the ball... I preferred it when they ran more; they used to kick all the time way back in the 1950s and it was booooring.

joggerjayne

Question Author

Okay, so I've done my research, and I see our options as ...

Danny C ... already discussed.

Toby Flood ... moved to Leicester, and played well enough to get his hands on the England shirt, but wasn't solid against the All Blacks.

Shane Geraghty ... Now doing well at London Irish, and might be worth another try. But ... how come he's not Irish ??

Charlie Hodgson ... Dropped after losing his form in New Zealand, but now playing some good rugby at Sale.

Jonny Wilkinson ... oh, give over !!

(I'm trying hard here to prove that we can talk about more than shoes and bags)