Cipriani facing World Cup blow
Fly-half omitted from 38-man training camp Moon also misses out but Marchant called up
The door is closing on Danny Cipriani’s World Cup dream after the Gloucester fly-half was yesterday omitted from England’s training camp in Italy.
Having been included in Eddie Jones’s original World Cup training squad of 35 earlier this month, the Premiership and Rugby Players’ Association’s player of the year sat out last week’s training session in Bristol and has now been left out of the 38-man party who travelled to Treviso yesterday for a 12-day camp.
For the Bristol camp, Cipriani was excluded to undertake “specialised strength and conditioning work” at his club alongside Bath duo Anthony Watson and Sam Underhill. Yet while that latter pair will be travelling to Italy, Cipriani will stay behind, despite being fit.
The Rugby Football Union confirmed it was Jones’s decision, while The Daily Telegraph understands that Cipriani was given no explanation for his omission.
The odds of Cipriani making the final 31-man squad, which will be announced on Aug 12 – the day after England’s opening World Cup warm-up game against Wales – were always prohibitive. Jones has never warmed to Cipriani, despite his remarkable club form for Wasps and Gloucester. The 31-year-old has earned just two caps under the Australian, on last summer’s tour of South Africa, in which he played a significant role in England’s 25-10 victory in Cape Town.
Yet there have been no further opportunities. With Owen Farrell moving to a fly-half role, Jones has preferred George Ford to be his back-up fly-half. He has previously indicated he feels Cipriani is unsuited to playing a supporting role.
As training intensifies, there is still a chance that injury could befall either Farrell or Ford but, that aside, the writing appears to be on the wall for Cipriani, the most talented player of his generation who is yet to appear at a World Cup.
“We have left some good players doing work at their clubs and they must be ready if called up,” Jones, the head coach, said.
The only other player from the original 35-man training squad to miss out is Exeter’s Ben Moon, who seems to have fallen down the pecking order at loosehead prop since Joe Marler came out of international retirement. Harlequins outside-centre Joe Marchant joins the squad for the first time having delivered an eye-catching performance in a non-capped England fixture against the Barbarians. His club-mate, full-back Mike Brown, makes the cut having come in for the Bristol camp.
Also included are prop Mako Vunipola, second-row George Kruis and wing Jack Nowell, all of whom have injury concerns.
“Treviso is a hard-yards camp with conditions similar to Tokyo,” Jones added.