I am England’s best full-back, insists Brown

Veteran admits being omitted is heartbreaking Cipriani: I needed a miracle to be selected

A defiant Mike Brown says the time will come for him to reveal details of his alleged fracas with Ben Te’o, but he remains adamant that he is “the best English full-back” available to Eddie Jones.

Another vastly experienced performer to be left out of England’s World Cup 31-man squad, Danny Cipriani, says he “would have had to turn water into wine” to have overtaken George Ford and Owen Farrell in the pecking order,

Brown was omitted from England’s squad to face Wales in their first Rugby World Cup warm-up match on Aug 11 prior to reports breaking of an alleged altercation with Te’o during a social event the previous week in Treviso.

Both men were subsequently excluded from the official 31-man group for the tournament, a blow that Brown admitted was “heartbreaking”. However, the 34-yearold insists he has no regrets about his conduct during England’s preseason. “It’s not the right time to go into full details of what happened,” Brown said. “I always try to stick to the team ethos and it wouldn’t be right for me with the guys preparing for a World Cup to start talking about things that went on during the pre-season. It’s more important for them to focus on what they are doing. But the World Cup won’t last forever, so there will be a time and a point where I feel comfortable and the time is right to speak about what my experiences were.

“It’s important that the people close to me and who matter in my life, my family and my close friends, my team-mates, they know what happened. And for everyone else, the details will come out when the time is right. We’re not in Eddie’s head, so we don’t know what cost me selection, or whether I was going to get selected, whether I was close or whatever,” Brown added.

“I was in the 45 [-man squad], I have no regrets about anything that happened through pre-season because I gave my all, came in in great shape, the best shape of my career. I put everything I could into training. I didn’t miss one second of training, even with niggles and things like that.”

Brown suggested that it would have been easy for him to have “folded and cruised through” on Harlequins duty last year as England continued with Elliot Daly at full-back, yet a series of strong domestic performances underlined his “ambition and character”.

Jones, who sees Daly and Anthony Watson as his primary options at full-back, has told Brown to “be ready” in case of an injury. For now, though, it seems as if he will not have a chance to redeem the bitter disappointment of the 2015 World Cup. “It’s heartbreaking to miss out,” Brown said. “You want to put things right from 2015. You want to be involved in the exciting things coming up. I’ve worked hard my whole career to be involved in these big tournaments. I feel I’m the best full-back for England.”

Cipriani, meanwhile, stressed that he understood Jones’ decision to leave him out. He was called into England’s training group and spent two weeks in preparation for the tournament before being sent away to work on his conditioning on an individual basis. The fly-half was then overlooked for the first camp in Treviso at the end of July.

Cipriani did not appear for any of the four warm-up Tests, but refused to criticise Jones. “What is a fair crack of the whip?” he said. “I can’t go in there demanding any time. Eddie has done a great job. He has put his faith in Ford and Faz and they have done well for him.

“Going into a big competition I would have had to turn water into wine to really sway him. I can completely understand why he made his decision. Do I think it was the right decision? I don’t know. I hope England go great.”