BRIAN Ashton insisted yesterday that he had no regrets about dropping Danny Cipriani from his team to play Scotland today. The young full-back was removed from the squad after a newspaper printed a picture of him leaving a nightclub on Wednesday night, and the speed of the England coach's actions led to suggestions that he had not given the player time to explain himself first.
Cipriani claimed he had only gone to the club briefly in order to deliver a ticket to a friend, and had not had any alcohol when he was there. That claim was backed up by others, and Ashton accepted yesterday that no official curfew had been in plac
e.
Nonetheless, the coach insisted that the uncapped player's behaviour had been unacceptable, but declined to spell out exactly why.
"I'm going to answer this once and that's it, because I've got a game tomorrow. It's really important in the context of our season," he said at a press conference yesterday when asked to expand on the Cipriani affair.
"It was my decision alone. I thought his behaviour was inappropriate for an international rugby player almost 48 hours before a Test match. I didn't consider any other form of action.
"There's not a set time. There is a code of conduct and it's confidential. I don't expect guys to be behaving inappropriately 48 hours or so before a Test match. I have spoken to Danny Cipriani and I am very comfortable with what I said to him. I've known him a long time. He'll be back in camp on Monday night."
Ashton has known Cipriani, now 20, since the Wasps player was 14, and may well have decided that firm action was the best way to sort out a player who has shown signs of taking too keen an interest in becoming a celebrity. Certainly, the coach would not say what Cipriani's specific offence had been, and allowed the press conference to descend briefly into farce when asked if the disciplinary action would have been the same had the player been visiting the Royal Opera House instead of a nightclub.
"The Royal Opera House probably doesn't go on until midnight," Ashton retorted.
Wagner would, it was suggested to him. "I don't think we've got any Wagner fans in the squad," he replied. "In fact I checked that before I came in here and we don't."
Cipriani offered an "unreserved apology" to Ashton and his team-mates yesterday, but also hinted that the decision to drop him had been over the top. "Believe me, it's a very harsh punishment, but I'll take it on the chin and I won't dwell on what I've done wrong," he said.
Ian McGeechan, Wasps' director of rugby, has also described the punishment as "very harsh". Ashton simply disagreed, while expressing his respect for the former Scotland coach's opinion.
"I don't think I'm a Draconian coach at all, despite what some people might have said about me in the last 24 hours. It just happens that I'm the man in charge and I make the decisions. Somebody has to.
"I had two conversations with Ian McGeechan yesterday. I respect his point of view and I understand his position. We had a chat about it, I explained my thoughts, and that was it. He has his job to do – he does it exceptionally well – and I've got my job to do."
Cipriani has been replaced by Iain Balshaw, who played at full-back for England's last three games. Ashton said he was confident that would mean the change produced minimal disruption to the team's plans.
"Given we trained with Iain Balshaw at full-back for the four previous weeks it's not been that difficult, to be honest. I hope Iain responds very positively. I spoke to him earlier in the week about why he wasn't in the side, so I imagine he's worked out for himself what he needs to do tomorrow to perform as an international full-back.
"In the first half of the Wales game there were signs again that he was somewhere back to his international best form. He looks in incredibly good shape and was exceptionally quick.
"I just feel since that first 40 minutes, in the two and a half games we've played since then, we haven't got the best out of him in that way. Hopefully we'll get the best out of not only him tomorrow but the two guys outside him as well, Lesley Vainikolo and Paul Sackey.
"I would think Iain Balshaw looks on this game as a remarkable opportunity to prove that what I did on Monday by leaving him out of the team was totally the wrong decision. I hope he can turn round to me in the dressing-room (afterwards] and stick two fingers up at me and say it was the wrong decision."
Ashton also hopes his players will be able to think on their feet better than some of their predecessors have done at Murrayfield. "I was here in 2000, when we came up here and lost because we'd trained in sunshine all week and it rained on the day," he recalled. "I think these guys are bright enough to understand that if the weather does change then maybe our approach needs to change as well."
England know that if both teams play to form they should win with a bit to spare, but Ashton insisted he would allow no room for complacency. "I've been up here before when Scotland have had a bad run of results and have beaten us. They don't like losing to England, full stop. We're expecting one hell of a battle."
The full article contains 956 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
