Gloucester flyer back in top form with a little help from Cipriani
GLOUCESTER hitman Charlie Sharples has hailed Danny Cipriani’s impact in providing the bullets for him to prove the doubters wrong.
Sharples has been a major beneficiary of Cipriani’s scintillating start at Kingsholm, with eight tries in six Premiership games taking him to the top of the scoring charts – just one short of his seasonal best league tally of nine in 2016/17.
An injury hit 2017/18 campaign prompted questions over whether he was past his best, but former England wing Sharples, 29, told The Rugby Paper: “It’s a fickle game at times but it’s nice to be reminding people I’m still here.
“Last season was tough with injuries (finger and hamstring) and with it being my testimonial year I had a lot of people thinking I was at the end, asking if I was going to retire.
“You tell them you’ve no plans for that, but you still have your doubters so the only way to prove it is by coming back and playing well.
“Physically, I feel in great shape. I’m not in the early stages of my career by any means, but I’m only 29 and I still feel strong, fast, powerful and explosive and as I’m getting older I’m learning about the game more and becoming better.
“It’s great to be able to put my marker down by having a good start to the season, but you can only do that if the team’s going well and I’ve also been getting a fair few of my tries off the back of Danny Cipriani’s brilliance.”
Cipriani, right, began his Gloucester career inauspiciously following a pre-season court appeartaking ance in Jersey, but Sharples added: “He’s hogging the headlines for the right reasons now and he’s certainly made a positive impact at the club. “I feel bad in a way because we’ve had some good No.10s here down the years and you don’t want to take anything away from them, but I think Cips has been a good influence and he’s helped run a lot of our attacking shape.
“He’s raising the level of everything we’re doing and he’s incredibly good at the ball to the line, seeing what a defence is doing and then making the right decisions. As long as we make the right runs, that benefits the guys outside.
“He’s been great for us and if he ever does get called upon by England again, I’ve no doubt he’ll do their jersey proud.”