The inside story on what happened the day Cipriani was punched out in England camp bust-up
James Haskell has given an insight into an infamous England camp bust-up that saw Danny Cipriani knocked unconscious after being punched out by a Wasps teammate.
In an excerpt from his new autobiography – What a Flanker – Haskell gives his personal account of the day in 2008 when Cipriani was KO’d by Josh Lewsey. The story was sold to the tabloids at the time, leaving the pair having to explain their actions.
“One of the first training ground fights I saw was between Lawrence [Dalaglio] and Joe Worsley, which might have scared me if Joe knew how to punch. Instead, he looked like an old woman trying to fend off a mugger with her hand-bag.
“Then there was the time I thought Josh Lewsey had killed Danny Cipriani. We were doing a defensive drill and Cips didn’t fancy it, which wasn’t a huge shock. Instead of putting his shoulder in, he was running up to the attacker and touching him with his fingertips.
“This didn’t go down well with Josh, who gave Cips a volley of abuse. Cips told Josh where to go, and Josh told Cips never to speak to him like that again.”
A separate account of the incident had Cipriani telling Lewsey, to “shut up, or be shut up”, which sparked the haymaker.
“Before Cips spoke to him like that again, I heard a bang, and when I turned around, Cips was on the floor snoring. It was like a s*** version of that famous photograph of Cassius Clay towering over Sonny Liston. Josh reminded me of Nicky Santoro, from the film Casino, as in if you fought him, you’d have to kill him.
“I later learned that Josh had knocked Cips cold with a sweet right-hand. Cips finally came around and for the next five hours kept on asking the same questions: What happened? What day is it?”
“Someone sold a story to a paper and the following week, after Cips set Josh up to score, they did a boxing celebration out on the pitch, showing still, as always, the best of friends.”
Lewsey’s own account of the fight, which he recalled in an interview earlier this year, suggested that the fight was more indicative of the culture of taking responsibility in the camp.
“Wasps is a very very proud club,” said Lewsey. “Not only were we used to winning, there was a level of expectation around.
“With the culture of player ownership, which Wasps had, comes responsibility. A lot of guys here took very personally the fortunes of the team.”
“It wasn’t a case of personality clashes,” he said. “There are always going to be playing issues from time to time but the beauty of sport, especially rugby, is that they are dealt with straight away and you get on with the job.”
Earlier this week RugbyPass spoke to BBC sports journalist Ben Dirs, who ghostwrote ‘What a Flanker’ and he says he found Haskell to be a breath of fresh air.
"He became this personification of everything all other countries hated about England players: public school, extremely posh, very privileged, loud"
– The new @jameshaskell book is out and @Jack_Zorab gets the inside track from ghostwriter @bendirs1 👨💻https://t.co/QVbfcJ3oka
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 1, 2020
“One of the themes of the book is, Who is James Haskell? Is he the person the public think he is? No, he isn’t. James says himself that people think he’s a bit of a tit! And he became this personification of everything all the other countries hated about England rugby players: public school, extremely posh, Wellington College-educated, very privileged, loud.
“There’s a quote from Rory Best saying that when Haskell was called up to the Lions in 2017 he thought, ‘Oh God, anyone but James Haskell’. Everyone he has ever played with thinks he is going to be a p***k but he quickly defuses them of that. He’s just very funny in that very keen way.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments