CIPRIANI FINED AGAIN AS TEST CAREER HANGS IN BALANCE
DANNY CIPRIANI has been forced to shell out again in the wake of last week’s Jersey fracas – but his Test career is still in limbo.
The fly-half was fined £2,000 by his club Gloucester – on top of £2,500 he copped in penalties last week – and he has been sentenced to 10 hours of rugby community service.
But Cipriani, who was recalled to the England line-up by Eddie Jones (right) this summer after a decade out, still has to face an RFU hearing into the incident that ended with him pleading guilty to common assault.
Sale’s Chris Ashton is also set to face the music – and could be banned for more than a month – after being sent off for punching in a pre-season game against Castres. Gloucester are ready to go to war with the RFU who waded in with a disciplinary charge of their own after Cipriani’s latest scrape. But he was not on England duty at the time and the club reckon the union have no grounds. And Gloucester will back their man after speaking to club captain Willi Heinz about the incident. A club statement read: “Having reviewed all the facts and spoken to both Danny and Willi, who witnessed the events first hand, we are in agreement with the magistrate in Jersey that this was a minor incident.
“Danny is very apologetic for his actions, but we do not believe he is guilty of bringing the game into disrepute and he will continue to get our full support.”