We live in a world now where the All Blacks have lost, Danny Cipriani has been compared to Superman – but not favourably – and international rugby players are trying not to look like Yakuza gangster.
The sporting globe has turned another rotation, so it is time to try to make sense of the week that was with Scrum’s the Word.
Controversial Danny Cipriani has been compared to Superman this week, but not favourably
NEWS FROM AROUND THE GROUNDS
SUPERMAN’S KRYPTONITE
Eddie Jones picked a training squad on Thursday for a training camp in Bristol this weekend.
If you missed it, here is it: Forwards – Tom Curry (Sale), Jamie George (Saracens), Dylan Hartley (Northampton), Nathan Hughes (Wasps), Nick Isiekwe (Saracens), Maro Itoje (Saracens), George Kruis (Saracens), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton), Joe Marler (Harlequins), Zach Mercer (Bath), Michael Rhodes (Saracens), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), Nick Schonert (Worcester), Brad Shields (Wasps), Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins), Billy Vunipola (Saracens), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), Harry Williams (Exeter), Mark Wilson (Newcastle).
Backs – Chris Ashton (Sale), Mike Brown (Harlequins), Danny Care (Harlequins), Joe Cokanasiga (Bath), Elliot Daly (Wasps), Nathan Earle (Harlequins), Owen Farrell (Saracens), George Ford (Leicester), Alex Lozowski (Saracens), Jonny May (Leicester), Jack Nowell (Exeter), Dan Robson (Wasps), Henry Slade (Exeter), Ben Te’o (Worcester), Manu Tuilagi (Leicester), Ben Youngs (Leicester).
Cipriani’s recent nightlclub altercation appears to have cost him his spot in the England side
Any of your favourites missing? Yes, arguably the most impressive player of the opening Premiership rounds, Danny Cipriani.
Jones made it clear this was a ‘form’ pick – not based on the playmaker’s arrest in Jersey during pre-season.
Cue outrage. Brian O’Driscoll was one of many baffled: ‘This call beggars belief if you’re to believe it’s ‘based on form,’ he tweeted.
We are not going to pretend we are better selectors than Jones, but we can point out two things.
First, inconsistency of language.
When asked if this was a selection made purely on form, Jones said: ‘100 per cent. We decided to have two stand-offs for this particular camp, because we want them to get a lot of training time. Danny is probably third or fourth.’ When looking from the outside, you then see: Kyle Sinckler, 0 mins this season – selected; Chris Ashton, 0 mins – selected; Ben Te’o, 0 mins – selected; Brad Shields, 44 mins – selected; Jack Nowell 80 mins – selected.
Fine, those have been out with injuries and bans, and selection criteria can be different for each player (Jones clearly wants those four involved in structural stuff), but it is confusing to see Cipriani axed on form, and meanwhile others who have no form to speak of make it.
Second, reading between the lines.
On Friday Jake Polledri was asked of the mood at half-time when Gloucester trailed 13-3 to Bristol.
Eddie Jones’ insistence that Cipriani has not been selected due to form is tough to believe
He said: ‘At half time we talked about keeping to our shape – I don’t think Cips was very happy about that. He mentioned that a few times.’ Notice it’s letting down Cipriani, not Ackermann, mentioned. The head coach clearly gave them his mad eyes too, but it is notable that Cipriani is demanding standards, acting like a coach for the Cherry & Whites. He is thriving with the reigns.
Owen Farrell is such a dominant force with England. Whether he is captain or not there is no question who runs that team. Would Cipriani be afforded the same control?
Jones is always at pains to mention George Ford whenever Cipriani is brought up, too.
‘Some of the quality of his (Ford’s) play is absolutely outstanding,’ he said on Thursday. ‘But, it’s like he’s an invisible man. Whereas one other player throws one pass and he’s superman.’ Revealing. Is Jones Cipriani’s Kryptonite?
But let’s not get our knickers in a twist yet – this is only training, the real quiz is in October when the squad for the Tests is picked. Three games to find some ‘form’, Danny.
BRISTOL’S DAILY PROPHET
Programme Visitors to Ashton Gate will be greeted to something out of Harry Potter this season when they go to watch Bristol Bears.
The newly-promoted club are helping revolutionise the dwindling market of match-day programmes by making them interactive – with moving images, just like the Daily Prophet newspaper from J.K Rowling’s books.
For your £3.50 this Saturday you will not just get a physical booklet, with the usual glossy pictures, interviews and not-quite-accurate teams, but the potential to watch videos too.
Visitors to Ashton Gate will get the Harry Potter treatment with their match-day programmes
This is how it works. Certain pages in the programme have an ‘R’ symbol – you download the club app, ‘scan’ the page, and it will open up a video of an interview with coach Pat Lam – for example – on your device.
Traditionalists were angered when the English Football League floated the idea of scrapping programmes altogether (lots of effort for little up-take the main gripe) but this unprecedented move by a rugby team seems to marry old with new.
It has meant the price has gone up by 50p – but Bristol Sport chairman Jon Lansdown thinks it fits with a punchy and different Bristol.
‘We always like to be pushing boundaries and leading the way whenever possible,’ he told Scrum’s the Word.
‘Match day programmes were viewed by some, myself included, as a slowly dying traditional entity, providing mostly aged content that could be found elsewhere.
‘Augmented Reality breathes fresh life into our match day programme, turning this completely on its head.’ What other Potter magic will come to Bristol next? Perhaps a spell to levitate them up the table?
MURPHY’S LAW
Good to see Leicester boss Geordan Murphy back-track on his heat-of-the moment comments following Will Spencer’s red-card against Wasps last Sunday.
Originally the Irishman was seen calling the decision ‘bull****’ and then ‘too PC’ – which was slammed by player-welfare conscious medical professionals and concussion campaigners.
Leicester boss Geordan Murphy has back-tracked on comments made after Will Spencer’s red
But on Wednesday, after Spencer had been banned for a month, Murphy – thankfully – revised his view.
‘I felt in myself that it might seem as though I was taking a head injury lightly and that is not me in any way,’ he said.
‘Looking back, I feel that my comments might have belittled the laws and that was not my intention. It was a little bit of emotion.’ Not all coaches accept that they were wrong, so it is right to praise Murphy for his admirable climb-down.
BLACKADDER GOES FORTH
One coach not backward in coming forward this week was Todd Blackadder. He is raging that stories are being written about his future.
‘What fires me up is when people start speculating and making up stories in mainstream news that then go global,’ he told Scrum’s the Word.
‘Some are writing that there is negativity around our camp as fact. I have an issue with that. It is wrong. I am not sure who is doing all the ****-stirring behind the scenes.
Bath coach Todd Blackadder is raging that stories are being written regarding his future
‘I will defend my club, I will defend my players, I will defend our environment. The day that I lose it, ask me a straight question and I will tell you the bloody truth, but don’t make up stuff.’ It is Blackadder’s right to defend himself, as he says, and so it is our right to defend our profession too. Talk of pressure is not plucked from the air.
A draw at Gloucester and then win at Quins means has seen it ease, but with his contract up at the end of the season, and with a loose-lipped and famously demanding owner in Bruce Craig, Blackadder – a thoroughly decent man – will know full well that he must bring success to Bath this year.
FROM TRAINERS TO… TRAINERS!
It’s a year to go to the World Cup this week, and aside from all the talk of Japanese typhoons and mafia tattoos one thing stood out.
Players are going to have sneak in more sneakers into their luggage. It’s a cultural thing in Japan to swap your shoes.
‘You have to wear different trainers indoors and outdoors,’ said tournament director Alan Gilpin.
‘As you go off the field and into the gym you would have to change your trainers.’ If you’re a player with designs on jetting to Japan next year, time to sign up to a trainer deal and fast!
SCRUM SOAPBOX – TANNOY TERRORS
Right. We’ll keep this short. Two public-address system shockers had us reaching for the noise-cancelling headphones this week. We’re not picking on anyone, but feel these must be noted and immediately stopped.
No 1 – Friday night. Raucous Kingsholm Shed bouncing in a fog of cider. Teams come out. Tannoy plays a track of clapping noises and a pre-record of fans signing ‘Glaaawwwsterrrr’. The fans were doing it themselves before they were baffled. Madness.
No 2 – Saturday afternoon. Quins man-on-the-mic reading out the team screams just the first names of the starting XV, hoping the fans would turn from their pulled-pork and bellow back the surnames.
AARON…silence…CHARLIE….silence…JOE…silence…BEN…silence – we’ll stop there. He didn’t. To be fair, the announcer did warn the Stoop he was going to do this, so maybe we should blame the fans. But come on, Twickenham is hardly Galatasaray, and that list of middle-class pre-noms isn’t rousing anyone. Oh and while we’ve got you ‘Game changer for Harlequins’ for every sub? NO. NO. NO.
THE STATCAVE
15 POINTS from 15 available taken by Exeter and Saracens – but it’s the Chiefs who have the best numbers. They average a league-leading 489 metres made, and 32 defenders beaten per match – and are yet to even line up a penalty, let alone kick one. They have 17 tries and have only missed one conversion. Nice.
1 WIN away for Northampton since September 2017 – against Leicester in April – they go to Bath on Saturday trying to stop that bad run.
11 MONTHS since any away win for Harlequins. They are worse on the road than Northampton, having won away in any competition since Saracens in the Anglo-Welsh Cup last November.
1 VICTORY at Sale for Wasps in 13 years. Since 2005 their only win came at Edgeley Park in October 2010.
10 YEARS since Gloucester won at Saracens – in November 2008 they beat Sarries 25-21 at Vicarage Road.
262nd PREMIERSHIP match for Richard Wigglesworth. He made his league debut back in 2002, and now the 35-year-old goes past former Saracen Steve Borthwick as the league’s record-holder this weekend.
STATCAVE SPECIAL – AT THE DOUBLE
A Theme has developed in the first three rounds… 17 players have scored twice in a match already.
1 Ben Tapuai QUINS v Sale 2 Mark Wilson NEWCASTLE v Saracens 3 Alex Lewington Newcastle v SARACENS 4 Sam Simmonds EXETER v Wasps 5 Henry Slade EXETER v Wasps 6 Jonny May LEICESTER v Newcastle 7 Niki Goneva Leicester v NEWCASTLE 8 Alapati Leiua Saracens v BRISTOL 9 Tom Dunn BATH v Gloucester 10 Ruan Ackermann Bath v GLOUCESTER 11 Charlie Sharples GLOUCESTER v Bristol 12 Zach Mercer Quins v BATH 13 Joe Cokanasiga Quins v BATH 14 Alex Lewington Northampton v SARACENS 15 David Strettle Northampton v SARACENS 16 Juan de Jongh WASPS v Leicester 17 Jonny May Wasps v LEICESTER …. and there have been seven occasions where two players have scored a double each in one game!
STATCAVE SAINT OF ROUND THREE
Jake Polledri – The Gloucester flanker against Bristol: 20 carries for 87 metres and 10 defenders beaten. It’s only the fourth time a forward has beaten 10 defenders in Premiership match since the beginning of the 2017-18 season, and Polledri has done it three times! Taulupe Faletau is the only other man to have achieved the feat, once versus Worcester last season.
STATCAVE SINNER OF ROUND THREE
George Smith – Should have been banned for the Gloucester game after a head-shot tackle (his red card was rescinded in the week) and then gave away six penalties and spent 10 minutes in the bin at Kingsholm. Oh what a night!