Mavericks like Danny must choose their battlegrounds
DANNY Cipriani is not the first maverick player to not get capped as many times as the talent they possess suggests they should, and his recent departure from Gloucester again raises the question of how to get the best from players with exceptional gifts.
There are talented players all over the place, but the big thing is whether they have the personality to get on with those they are in closest contact with, whether it is coaches, other players, or the media.
The problem with mavericks is that they will have a run-in with someone, sometime, because criticism will at some stage become like a bear poking a bees’ nest. That is why gifted individuals have to learn to choose their battles, and speak at the right time. Their talent gives them some leeway because it is unsurpassed, and therefore can transcend any difficulties they have in training, or off the field.
Cipriani has a colourful history, which I don’t intend to go through in detail here – but because of it, let’s just say that not too many people will be surprised that the fly-half has won only 16 England caps, and that he has not played in a World Cup, or been on a Lions tour. That seems like a travesty when you consider how much talent Cipriani has – however, when you hear other people’s stories about the challenges of playing with him, it becomes more understandable.
When Cipriani was continually left out by England bosses like Martin Johnson, Stuart Lancaster, and Eddie Jones, it was never a question of ability as much as if he fitted in with what they wanted to do as well as the other fly-halves available to them.
At Gloucester it seems that Cipriani had a chat with coach George Skivington, and one way or the other he was not able to reach agreement with his old Wasps teammate about how the team would play. So, if Skivington wanted to play in a certain way, and Cipriani was not on the same page, then you can understand what has happened.
Yet, it seems strange when you consider that he was playing fantastic rugby in a Gloucester team that did well under Johan Ackermann only 18 months ago, and was voted RPA player of the season by his fellow players.
He emerged first as the brilliant protégé of Brian Ashton, and in his early years he was part of a very successful Wasps side enjoying a run of European Cup and Premiership success. When he succeeded Alex King he seemed destined to take things to another level, which included mounting a serious challenge to Jonny
Wilkinson for the England 10 shirt after orchestrating a big win over Ireland in 2008 – only for it to be derailed by a very bad ankle injury playing for Wasps a couple of months later.
The timing of Cipriani’s injury was awful, because during the 20082011 period when Ashton, Andy Robinson, and then Johnson were in charge of England, they were not consistently successful, and it was a side that chopped and changed.
After he recovered, Cipriani’s talent was still intact, but unfortunately his pressure goal-kicking and tackle success rate were not in the 80
per cent bracket often enough, and he found his England path blocked by Wilkinson and Toby Flood. He also seemed to be on the front pages of the papers as much as the back pages.
Maybe that would have been different if Ashton had been there longer, but sometimes you vent your frustration in the wrong ways, and often people don’t understand. In terms of today’s social media, if you are a pro sportsman with a profile, then your private life will be visible unless you are careful – and for most of his rugby career Danny has been very visible off the field in terms of his social life.
Along with the question marks over his defence and goal-kicking, the word behind the scenes was that he was challenging with other players, and with management – although I’d never heard any stories about him having a serious altercation with any coaches.
The clearest indicator that he had his difficulties with teammates came when Josh Lewsey punched him during a Wasps training session in 2008. Training ground altercations like that happened to a lot of people, but you sense that it could have happened a few more times to Danny than to others. All you can think is that in training his personality was not as agreeable as it might have been – although what happens socially does not always affect a tight group of players who all have the same drive and ambition.
Cipriani’s decision to go to Australia in 2010 to play for the Melbourne Rebels was another watershed – because since then it never seemed to quite work out right in terms of re-establishing himself at international level.
However, in recent years when he’s been interviewed there has been a sense of a maturing man, and as a rugby pundit he’s impressive because you can see that he knows the game inside-out. It also seems strange that Eddie Jones eventually took him to South Africa in 2018, and that he played reasonably well in poor conditions in helping England to win the third Test, but then was never asked back.
What we can say is that at his best – if his goal-kicking was strong and he was tackling well – Danny Cipriani was the best. In attacking terms, you cannot think of a better fly-half.
David Campese was another brilliant player who was seen as a maverick because of the way he played. I faced the Australian winger on the pitch on a number of occasions, and I knew he trained incredibly hard, and was seen as a bit of a loner who did his own thing. However, despite being bit of a voicebox for the media, Campese was also an inspirational part of a great Wallaby team.
Perhaps the difference was that although Cipriani got his ears boxed at Wasps early on, his ego grew and became uncontainable, whereas Campese understood better what was needed in a team environment.
Finn Russell is another maverick fly-half getting headlines, and after Racing’s big win over Harlequins there are some pundits who think that he should be the Lions starting 10 on the 2021 Lions tour of South Africa.
I can’t see it as being so cut and dried as that. Russell likes the freedom to play the game as he wants to – but it won’t work like that with the Lions.
On the 1997 tour that I was part of, our coaches, Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer, had an idea of what they wanted as a strategy to beat South Africa, and we added to that as players. It meant that, even with a maverick like Gregor Townsend at fly-half on that tour, he knew what the strategy was, and what was required of him for us to win the series.
This time 2021 coach Warren Gatland knows that Owen Farrell is a fly-half who can put a strategy into practice. I’m not saying that Russell cannot do it, but he will have to show Gatland that he has the necessary discipline and control to do so, starting with his performances for Scotland in the Six Nations, rather than just having an all-out attacking game.
Russell has a reputation for playing it open, but you do not want all-out attack against a Springbok side with a great defence which is waiting to punish your mistakes.
Perhaps the key to getting the best out of a gifted maverick is to see how accepting they are of other players, and how accepting other players are of them.
“At his best, if his goal-kicking was strong and he was tackling well, Cipriani was the best”