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Gloucester make statement ahead of RFU hearing... by naming Cipriani in team
Gloucester appear confident that Danny Cipriani won’t pick up an RFU ban by naming him in their team for a pre-season game with the Dragons on Thursday.
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The Cherry and Whites open their Gallagher Premiership campaign at home against Northampton and are naturally keen to give their new England flyhalf some game time before the season starts.
Four of Gloucester’s other summer recruits – Matt Banahan, Franco Marais, Gerbrandt Grobler and Todd Gleave – are also set to play.
Cipriani is due to appear before an RFU Independent Disciplinary Hearing in Bristol later on Wednesday, despite the Rugby Players Association and Gloucester heavily criticising the decision.
🏉 Your Cherry and Whites for Thursday night!
Excited #glawsfamily? #GLOvDRA pic.twitter.com/sY4uOhiUR6
— Gloucester Rugby 🍒 (@gloucesterrugby) August 22, 2018
On Tuesday RFU confirmed in a statement that the 30-year-old would still face charges and said “In light of his conviction for common assault and resisting arrest, Danny Cipriani was on Friday charged with conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game contrary to RFU Rule 5.12.
“Cipriani’s hearing in front of an independent disciplinary panel will take place in Bristol on Wednesday 22 August at 18:30. The panel will be chaired by Gareth Graham with Mike Curling and Olly Kohn.”
The RPA had earlier said they were “surprised” by the RFU’s decision to press ahead with a hearing after Gloucester’s had disciplined the player.
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“Given that it related to an off-field, non-rugby related incident that occurred on club time, and had already been dealt with by the Jersey courts, we believe that it was appropriate for the matter to be dealt with by the club through its own disciplinary procedures. As Gloucester have now completed this process, we believe this should close the matter. We will be raising this directly with the RFU,” the RPA said in a statement.
Gloucester have fined Cipriani £2,000 and the fly-half will also have to do an additional 10 hours of community service.
Continue reading below…
Video: James Haskell hits out at Cipriani critics
Last week Gloucester Rugby CEO Stephen Vaughan hit out at the RFU’s decision to haul Cipriani before an independent disciplinary panel.
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“We are surprised and extremely disappointed to have recently received notification of disciplinary action against Danny Cipriani by the RFU” he said.
“I received a personal assurance from the RFU that no disciplinary discussions would take place until we had completed our own conversations as stated in our club release.
“With the team in Belfast for tomorrow’s preseason friendly against Ulster, we had indicated that this would be carried out early next week following the team’s return.
“There is no historic precedent of a player being singled out in this manner, and we feel that this disciplinary process has been influenced by the significant media coverage of this week’s events and other external factors and not based on the actual facts of the matter.
“In summary, we do not agree with the RFU’s decision to embark upon a disciplinary process before we have concluded our own internal discussions and fail to understand the reasons for this approach.
“We do not believe that this decision and the subsequent unnecessary public attention that will now follow it is in the best interests of either the RFU, the club, the player nor the game in general.”
Following Cipriani’s punishment by the club on Monday, a Gloucester Rugby spokesperson commented:
“Having reviewed all the facts and spoken to both Danny and Willi Heinz, who witnessed the events first hand, we are in agreement with the Magistrate in Jersey that this was a minor incident. While Danny is very apologetic for his actions, we do not believe he is guilty of bringing the game into disrepute and he will continue to get our full support.
“Danny has now faced disciplinary action from both the Courts and his Club and, with the new season about to kick off, our focus is very much on preparing for Northampton on the 1st September, so we will not be making any further comments on this matter.”
Last week Cipriani pleaded guilty to common assault and resisting arrest and was fined £2,000.
He was also ordered to pay a female police officer £250 in compensation arising from the incident at The Royal Yacht Hotel and Spa, St Helier.
Several reports claim Cipriani got into a disagreement with a bouncer after he wanted to bring a drink outside. According to The Sun witnesses heard Cipriani tell officers: “These wrists are gold, loosen the cuffs”.
Glouster Rugby had been carrying out pre-season training with the Jersey Reds on the island.
The 30-year-old, who has been capped 16 times for England, having come to the end of his second spell with Wasps at the end of last season.
The former Sale Sharks star returned to the England fold in June, starting the third Test against South Africa, having previously been overlooked for selection for three years.
He also counts Melbourne Rebels and Sale Sharks amongst his former clubs.
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
38 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments