Danny Cipriani has been dropped from England’s World Cup squad but Sam Burgess, Luther Burrell, Ben Morgan and Nick Easter were all left sweating late into the night as Stuart Lancaster and his coaching team deliberated over the final selections.
Cipriani was informed yesterday, before the squad took part in an internal training match, that he is one of eight players being cut as Lancaster trims his squad down to the final 31, to be announced at 1.45pm today.
Alex Corbisiero, Dave Attwood, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Calum Clark and Billy Twelvetrees are also understood to have fallen at the final hurdle. The last two to go will be informed this morning; Burgess is thought to be the favourite to claim the one available midfield place ahead of Burrell, with Easter and Morgan rivals at No 8.
Cipriani, the Sale Sharks fly half, was told that he had exceeded Lancaster’s expectations but that the England management had not seen enough to be convinced that he was worth a place in the squad ahead of Alex Goode.
If Cipriani was feeling chippy, he could have asked why, in that case, Lancaster did not give him more opportunity to prove himself during the Six Nations and the two warm-up matches against France, when he was restricted to limited appearances off the bench.
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Cipriani was given 17 minutes in Paris last weekend and turned in a virtuoso performance, scoring a try and playing a key role in England’s late rally, to be voted man of the match in a poll run by the RFU. Even then, Cipriani knew that the writing was on the wall. Lancaster said after the game that he was struggling to see a way of including him. Cipriani admitted that he was “on the periphery” and said that he could not have done any more to state his case. Nevertheless, it will still have come as a blow to be dropped on the eve of a World Cup for the second time, after a similar experience in 2007.
The 27-year-old has worked hard to convince England that he is a reformed character from the wild child that Lancaster knew from their days together with the Saxons. He has teamed up with Steve Black, Jonny Wilkinson’s life coach, and brought a consistency and maturity to his game.
This year, Cipriani turned down the prospect of a move to Toulon. Drew Mitchell and Matt Giteau tried to persuade him to join the European champions but Cipriani knew that moving to France immediately after the World Cup would jeopardise his chances of playing for England.
Cipriani wanted to convince Lancaster that his only ambition was to forge an international career that began so spectacularly in 2008, with that masterful performance against Ireland at Twickenham, but has remained largely unfulfilled.
It is more likely that Cipriani kept his powder dry in his meeting with Lancaster and accepted a place on England’s stand-by list. However, after this rejection, it would not be a surprise if the prospect of a move to France comes back on to the agenda. Cipriani is contracted to Sale for the coming season with the option of one more year. In a recent interview with L’Équipe, he said that playing in the Top 14 is an “experience that tempts me, but I have time”.
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George Kruis is thought to have been preferred to Attwood for the fourth second-row berth, while Jamie George is favourite to be named as the third hooker after a solid debut off the bench against France in Paris. Kieron Brookes is expected to be the fifth prop ahead of Corbisiero, whose career has been hindered by injury since his heroics with the Lions in 2013.
The decisions that were taking up the most time were in midfield and the back row. Morgan, who has played 40 minutes since breaking a leg in January, was told that he had to prove his fitness in yesterday’s trial match if he was to have a chance of being included.
Morgan came through the session unscathed but Easter was another who impressed off the bench in Paris and he is holding out for a place in a third World Cup.
Lancaster sought to solve the midfield “dilemma”, as Mike Catt described it, by lining up Burgess and Burrell opposite each other. They appear to be playing for one midfield place alongside Jonathan Joseph, Brad Barritt and Henry Slade.
Will Carling, the centre who captained England in two World Cups, would go with Burrell because he believes that Burgess’s lack of experience in a rugby union defence will be exposed at the highest level. “I’m in awe of Sam as a rugby league player, but there is no one that I have spoken to who I respect — so ex-players, coaches — who think he’s ready,” Carling said.
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“I don’t understand what the rush is and it’s unfair on him. I feel sorry for him. If you watched him carefully, he was out of position a huge amount in defence. He doesn’t understand where the ball is coming from and you can see that in the way his feet are when he lines up. The southern-hemisphere boys will focus on him if he’s playing.”
Is there a way back in?
● The 20 competing nations must submit their final 31-man squads to World Rugby by August 31, although they do not have to announce the names publicly by that date. Scotland will reveal their squad on September 1.
● Once the squads are submitted, teams are permitted to make changes on medical or compassionate grounds, but all replacements are permanent and cannot be reversed. Any change to the squad has to be ratified by the tournament organisers.
● A new player called into a tournament squad must wait up to 72 hours before he can take the field to prevent replacements being drafted in at short notice.
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Words by Alex Lowe