Cipriani's roller-coaster ride comes full circle

10:42am Friday 14th March 2008

What a week or so it has been for former Rosslyn Park player Danny Cipriani.

First, he was named for his first England start when selected ahead of the out-of-sorts Iain Balshaw at full-back ahead of the Six Nations clash with Scotland.

Two days later, he was dropped after being photographed leaving a London nightclub in the early hours of that morning, despite claiming he was just dropping off tickets to friends and had not been drinking.

He was banished back to his Guinness Premiership club Wasps, and came off the bench to help steer them to a narrow victory over Harlequins on Sunday.

Now, he is back in favour with England head coach Brian Ashton and in a big way - selected at fly-half in place of Mr Rugby himself, Jonny Wilkinson.

It must have been a bitter pill for Wilko to be relegated to the bench just three days after breaking Neil Jenkins' international points scoring record but, for someone who has been through hell physically and emotionally since the 2003 World Cup triumph, this will not be the end.

Clearly, Wilkinson has been made the scapegoat for yet another below-par display by England at Murrayfield and you have to wonder whether Ashton is trying to send a message to his underachievers by dropping the biggest name of them all.

There is no doubt that, the victory over France aside, England's hero of that night in Sydney has not reached his own exceptionally high standards in this Six Nations tournament but, when it comes to Ashton's culprits of another fruitless Grand Slam quest, Wilkinson is not alone.

None of this is Cipriani's fault, of course, and rugby's next big thing must just stay focused on grabbing his big chance.

Last month, the 20-year-old told the Times that his grounding at Priory Lane had prepared him for his international debut, which came in England's first match of this campaign, the defeat to Wales.

His is definitely an old head on young shoulders and I for one can't wait to see whether he can transfer his exciting talent on to the international scene.

Should he light up England's clash with Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday, Ashton's critics will have been silenced, and it could even present the head coach with the same conservative-versus-expansive option that Welsh supremo Warren Gatland has with Stephen Jones and James Hook.

And that hasn't worked out too badly, has it?

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