Rugby World Cup Blog

It seems fair to say that Danny Cipriani’s Rugby Union career is anything but predictable. After bursting onto the international rugby scene, big things were expected of him.

Despite this, he made a number of mistakes as England picked up the losing habit and was subsequently dropped from the squad entirely. Since then, he has been criticised for living the ‘party lifestyle’ in his private life, something which could be affecting his progress as a player.

Now though, there is the possibility of another twist in the Cipriani tale. After watching him fail to prevent Wasps losing 19-14 at Saracens, Lions coach Ian McGeechan dropped a very heavy hint that he
will be taking the England reject with him to South Africa. Considering that England boss Martin Johnson has revealed that Cipriani is a long way off reclaiming the No.10 jersey for his country, this would come as quite a big surprise.

However, after a performance where Cipriani showed neat touches and landed three of his six kicks at goal, McGeechan said that it was ‘comfortably the best game’ the Wasps man had played since his
comeback.

The Lions coach then went on to say how Cipriani was ‘pretty close’ to where he was before his injury and that at this moment, there is ‘no higher praise’ for him. Overall, McGeechan thought Cipriani was
‘confident’ throughout.

Is this performance alone enough to win a place on the Lions tour though? Probably not. There are four games left before the squad is named on the 21st April though and if Cipriani can play like he did at
Saracens a couple more times, then McGeechan may well give him the nod.
As far as the bookies are concerned though, Cipriani is 16-1 fifth favourite to start the Lions first test at fly-half. They clearly don’t expect him to be involved, but these latest comments from McGeechan certainly give the 21-year-old a chance and backing the player could be an interesting rugby bet to make.

Should he manage to get himself on the plane to South Africa, it could well be the start of something big. His confidence – which seems to be on the up anyway –would be given a significant boost and he could start thinking about forcing his way into Johnson’s plans again.
Cipriani shouldn’t get ahead of himself though. For now, he needs to focus on playing well for Wasps in the next four games to give himself the best opportunity possible of representing the Lions in South
Africa.