News

Cipriani could miss England cut

June 22 2008

England boss Rob Andrew has revealed injured fly-half Danny Cipriani is unlikely to be included in England's elite player squad for next season.

New England team manager Martin Johnson will name a 32-man Elite Player Squad (EPS) on July 1, his first day in the hot seat.

But Cipriani is recovering from a fracture dislocation of his right ankle, suffered in Wasps' Guinness Premiership semi-final win over Bath, and is set to miss out on the first pick.

"It would be very unlikely that we will name a guy who is going to be out for the first six months of the season," said Andrew.

"But we would have the facility to add him into the squad."

The looming squad selection will cause Johnson and Andrew, who led the troubled tour of New Zealand, increasing headaches in the next week.

The most difficult situation is how to deal with the four players who were the subject of a serious sexual assault allegation in New Zealand this week.

The Rugby Football Union must hold fire on any potential disciplinary action until the police file on the case is closed, one way or the other.

That could mean England selecting players for the squad and then taking retrospective disciplinary action.

"We may well have to do that," admitted Andrew.

"But at the moment we are being told that any disciplinary action we take or wish to take in the future will have to wait until the official inquiry is finished."

England travelled to New Zealand with a squad featuring only three players over the age of 30 and many players were effectively on trial for their EPS places.

Danny Care, Topsy Ojo, David Paice and Jason Hobson all made their England debuts on tour while the likes of Mike Brown, Tom Varndell, Charlie Hodgson and Luke Narraway all had their chance to impress.

Not all of them took it.

Andrew explained: "We wanted to learn about our younger players as we move towards the autumn internationals and we have learned some really good things. We have also learned one or two things about some players we didn't want to learn."

Narraway arguably made the biggest impression on tour and, with flankers Tom Rees and James Haskell, England now boast a young back row that can grow together.

"We all hold up Neil Back, Richard Hill, Lawrence Dallaglio - it would be a fairly decent thing to start to follow," said Rees.

The jury remains out on Ojo, despite his two opportunistic tries in the first Test, and Varndell, while Care is still raw but with bags of potential.

As well as Harry Ellis and Cipriani, England had to do without wingers Paul Sackey and James Simpson-Daniel, flanker Lewis Moody, lock Simon Shaw, prop Phil Vickery, number eight Nick Easter and fly-half Jonny Wilkinson.

All will come into strong contention for inclusion in the first EPS squad.

"I think we will have a strong senior elite squad, which is the critical factor going into the new agreement with the clubs on July 1," said Andrew.

"For the first time we have a five-day camp in August and then we will have a two week build-up to the autumn internationals."