General Blog About Everything

Rising England star Danny Cipriani appears unlikely to wear the national shirt
until next year’s RBS 6 Nations after Wasps confirmed he was set for six
months on the sidelines with an ankle injury.

Brian Ashton appears set to accept his demotion from England head coach to a
role with the National Academy.

Over the three years in which his fame has reached a wider audience than
perhaps any other rugby player – barring He Of The Drop-Goal, naturally –
Gavin Henson has failed dismally to keep anything and everything out of the
newspapers. So it is rather odd to discover him seething at a revelation
that, in fact, does his reputation no harm.

England flanker James Haskell, who is battling to be fit for the Calcutta Cup
match against Scotland at Murrayfield in 11 days’ time, at first thought he
had suffered a similar injury to that sustained by Arsenal’s Croatian
international Eduardo against Birmingham City.

Two thoughtful Lancastrians will look at the Six Nations table tomorrow
morning, but only one will feel satisfied with what he sees. While Brian
Ashton’s England languish in fourth place, the part-time, assistant coach of
Wales, Shaun Edwards, knows that his boys will go top if they beat Italy in
Cardiff and France get pricked by a red rose in Paris.

On their homecoming since finishing a gallant second in the World Cup final in Paris, England blew a handsome lead and finished in such disarray that they were runners-up to what virtually amounted to a club side. Wales, to the delight of twitchers everywhere but the Home Counties, originally contained 13 Ospreys, and the gamble by Warren Gatland, their new coach, paid off spectacularly.