Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Cipriani to make Bath debut away to Sharks
DANNY Cipriani will make his first competitve appearance in ten months after being given his Bath debut in today’s Gallagher Premiership clash away to Sale.
Cipriani left Gloucester abruptly, having made just one appearance last season, in the round one defeat at Leicester, and, after a sabbatical, he moved to the Recreation Ground.
Although available for the end of Bath’s 2020-21 campaign, he was not selected and instead will make his first appearance in this weekend’s trip to Manchester.
Playmaker Cipriani, who turns 34 in November, has been installed as first choice fly-half, while 19-yearold Orlando Bailey continues his development and will be responsible for shaping the club’s attack.
Cipriani won the last of his 16 caps in 2018, being unable to convince Eddie Jones of his value to England despite being named players’ player of the year and Premiership player of the year in 2019.
“Danny’s been great. He’s obviously been out of the game a long time, so there’s a big excitement for him to get back and get the ball in his hands and get playing,” Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper said. “I want him to enjoy himself, I want him to play games with a smile on his face and be the dominant attacking force that we’ve seen him be previously.”
Charlie Ewels captains the Blue, Black & Whites.
Gloucester have announced they will no longer be keeping supporters updated on their injured players.
Last season, the Cherry & Whites noted comments from supporters at their Fans’ Forum and launched a website page dedicated to explaining which players were unavailable because of injury. Without being overly specific, the page updated each week at the same time as the team news for the fourthcoming weekend was announced.
However, despite the popularity of this service with fans, Gloucester have now opted to stop the service.
A press officer for the club also told journalists attending head coach George Skivington’s midweek press conference that he would not be taking any questions on injuries.
Chief operating officer Alex Brown said: “This decision has been taken by the management team in respect of the players, who, at times, may not wish for their injuries to be shared.”
Gloucester are clearly suffering from shortages in the second row this week, with number eight Ben Morgan named as a lock for the game at Northampton. Loosehead Val Rapava-Ruskin is also nowhere to be seen, but Jamal Ford-Robinson returns to the 23 despite suffering a concussion against Coventry in last weekend’s pre-season clash.