Danny Cipriani is likely to quit English club rugby for the second time in his career if he is omitted from England’s squad to be announced this month. Sale have given their fly-half a fortnight to decide whether to re-sign with them, and they expect him to relocate to France if he does not feature in England’s Six Nations plans.
Cipriani found himself ranked behind George Ford, Owen Farrell and Stephen Myler in the autumn. But Steve Diamond, Sale’s director of rugby, reckons it would be “foolhardy” not to pick him in the Six Nations with the Rugby World Cup looming. According to Diamond, there is every prospect of the 27-year-old heading abroad if he feels he has no chance of inclusion in the World Cup squad.
“Danny’s going to make a decision in the next two weeks,” confirmed Diamond, a firm believer that Cipriani’s club form for a mid-table side has been good enough to justify a call-up. “If he gets a sniff and can break into the Six Nations, he sees his future giving it a shot for England.
“I think that’s the deciding factor as to whether he goes abroad or stays in this country. He hasn’t been given a run in the autumn but you’d be foolhardy, in my opinion, not to see what he’s like against the other major teams in the Six Nations. He’s got to play well against sides like Northampton this weekend and if he does that, and he thinks it’s right to stay, I’m pretty sure he’ll sign here. If he doesn’t, he’ll probably take his option abroad.”
Toulon are thought to be among those interested in signing Cipriani, who played for the Melbourne Rebels prior to joining Sale in 2012. But Diamond says a lucrative move to the Top 14 is not the player’s preference. “I don’t think he’s motivated solely by money, as nobody who plays for Sale is. It’s more down to how he sees himself going over the next two or three years.
“If he sees himself pushing one of the three others out of position, he’s not one to run away from a challenge, as we’ve seen over the last three years here. He’s gone from being a bad boy, supposedly, to playing some great rugby. All I’ve said to him this morning is I need to know in the next two weeks. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that if Danny left, we’d have a lot of money to spend on another target. We don’t want him to go. He ticks all the boxes for us.”
Diamond, meanwhile, has called for severe punishments to be handed out to any clubs found guilty of abusing Premiership wage regulations, suggesting some are spending up to £2.5m over the permitted salary cap. “It looks like one or two of them have been caught with their hand in the till. The consequences have got to be harsh, or else why have it?
“I know what the salaries are for all the players and I know what the agents are touting the players at. I know what my players are being offered by other clubs. One would suggest some clubs are spending £2-£2.5m more than the cap. They’d have to be.
“We can’t just hand out a five grand fine. There’s got to be a deterrent put in place. What’s the saying? Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. That’s what they say in the streets where I live. All it takes is three or four nut jobs to blow the salaries out of the window and it is carnage. We can’t compete with that.”
