Cipriani can still be driving force
could be joined by Steffon Armitage if the former European Player of the Year can persuade Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal to release him from the final year of his contract.
According to Boudjellal yesterday, Armitage received a phone call from Jones offering him an England place if he returns home. That claim drew a waspish response.
“You have got to remember the bloke who makes the comments writes comic books. I will leave it at that. I don’t know whether he writes them or sells them but he has made plenty of money out of them. Batman and Robin won’t be in the team,” said Jones.
“People have false Facebooks and false Twitters, so I suppose you can have a false phone call but it’s got nothing to do with me. He’s not eligible to play for England.”
Jones is optimistic that Leinster’s English-qualified Kiwi Ben Te’o will complete his move to Worcester in time to be available to tour this summer – either to Australia with the senior squad or South Africa with the Saxons. But the rule tweak that will enable the Ospreys’ Cardiffbased student Sam Underhill to play for England while completing his studies in Wales will not be activated. “I went to Cardiff last week and had a good chat to him. He’s a young kid and he has had a lot of injuries this year so we decided that the best thing for him at this stage is to have a good pre-season,” said Jones. “If he gets that under his belt then hopefully by November he will be eligible to play for us.”
Meanwhile, Jason Robinson has predicted rugby league players will begin to convert to rugby union sevens after this summer’s Olympic Games, instead of its traditional 15-a-side format.
Sevens will make its inaugural appearance at a Games this summer in Rio, the first time any form of rugby has done so since 1924.
Robinson was one of the world’s finest rugby league players before converting to union, at which he excelled, but at a time when high-profile players have struggled to match his success and returned to league, he believes they will soon pursue an alternative.
“I see those crossovers going straight to sevens because rugby league and sevens are so similar and less technical,” he said. “They have got the skills, so with all the investment coming into sevens there will be more players thinking this is another route.”