Nick Cain: Good to see Danny Cipriani back – now it’s all  up to him

Danny Cipriani has been thrown a lifeline by Stuart Lancaster, but it remains to be seen whether it is long enough to pull him all the way back to flagship England. Cipriani, who is now 26, was included in an England squad for the first time in six years on Thursday after head coach Stuart Lancaster named him in a 20-man training group ahead of the match against the Barbarians.
Lancaster is working an astute PR and motivational strategy by including English rugby’s prodigal son in the wider squad following a season in which he has made significant improvements in discipline and defence for Sale. The head coach had told him he had to make headway in those areas, and now he has done so he has been rewarded.
Lancaster made it clear that it is primarily up to Cipriani, who won all of his seven caps in 2008 when Brian Ashton was England coach, where the rehabilitation process goes from here.
Lancaster commented, “It depends on how he trains next week – and next week (after the Premiership play-offs) we will have a clearer view of that (fly-half) position.”
The England head coach expanded on the Cipriani theme: “I judge players on their form for their club. Reputation and what they’ve done in the past counts for something, but not everything. Danny’s definitely improved and Sale have played well. He has controlled the games really well. I’m pleased with what he’s done and he’s in the equation.”
However, Lancaster also stated that Cipriani has very tough competition to get himself not only on the tour to New Zealand, but to put himself in line for a Test recall.
Lancaster added: “Fly-half is such a pivotal position in the team. Players like Freddie Burns, Stephen Myler, Owen Farrell and George Ford are already up to speed with our game-plan and plays. Danny would have to get up to speed with all of that and then deliver at international level in terms of execution. That’s the challenge for players coming into an international side.”
The reality is that Cipriani is fifth in a pecking order that has Farrell, Ford, Myler and Burns ahead of him, in that sequence. It was interesting that Lancaster made a point of including Burns, who has had a season to forget.
On form alone I would put Cipriani above Burns, but the England coach had these soothing words for the Gloucester fly-half, “Whenever he has come into the England camp every time he was up to speed and delivered.”
Lancaster was clearly not including Burns’ shocker for the Saxons against Ireland A at Kingsholm early in the new year, when the Gloucester No.10 had one of those afternoons where he could do nothing right.
However, barring a run of fly-half injuries the New Zealand script does not include either Burns or Cipriani, because Lancaster has multiple options without them. Farrell and Ford are his first two choices at fly-half to run the series against the All Blacks, and behind them there is Myler, and also Alex Goode, who Lancaster clearly rates highly as cover at No.10.
Overall Myler has had a very good season, benefiting hugely from Northampton coach Jim Mallinder finally deciding that rotation between two different fly-halves does not work. There was nevertheless a warning to all coaches in the Saints v Leicester humdinger on Friday night just how critical it is to get your chemistry right at half-back.
Myler simply could not get it together with Kahn Fotuali’i, who was preferred as the starting scrum-half ahead of Lee Dickson. The intensity of the play-off at Franklin’s Gardens clearly appeared to have got to Fotuali’i, who played like a scalded cat, and when Dickson came on in the second-half he and Myler immediately struck the rythm and tempo which helped the Saints to march in to the Premiership final.
More of the same from the Saints half-back duo at Twickenham will not improve Cipriani’s chances of a trip to New Zealand ahead of Myler.