Danny Cipriani is one of those players England rugby fans love to hate. Cipriani is an incredibly gifted player, he has bags of flare and tremendous skill. Yet his flash and brash attitude off the pitch tends to get up the nose of most rugby fans. Is it his arrogance? Or is it the feeling that most fans get when they see him in nightclubs at 3am hanging off the arms of models. That feeling that there is an immense talent going to waste again?
There is no way we can deny that Danny Cipriani has an impressive amount of talent. At London Wasps we played witness to his dynamic running, superb vision and near faultless kicking displays. That was on the pitch. And sadly that is only half of the story of this young lad. Off the pitch we saw him breaking curfews, hitting nightclubs before games and attending fashion shows instead of training camps. At the Melbourne Rebels we've seen him bulking up and fronting up. He is now a more complete defensive unit than he was 18 months ago. However his reckless side has still been apparent after Cipriani was photographed stealing a bottle of vodka from a nightclub. Although I think its fair to say after a short spell on the sidelines coupled with a fine and a hefty warning from his club about his future conduct, danny has matured, even if the models still make the odd cameo here and there.
Danny Cipriani is a player blessed with more inches than most rugby players, of course I mean column inches and sadly most don't paint him in the best light. However I for one am willing to ignore the past of this troubled young man and let his clean slate start when he touches down in the UK.
So next for Danny Cipriani is a move from sunny Melbourne to the slightly milder climate of northern England with the Sale Sharks. In my opinion this is very shrewd business from the sharks. In Cipriani they are getting a player that has huge experience of top flight Rugby, a great calmness in the big games, a player with panache, guile and the ability to turn a game on its head. Sale have opted for Cipriani as their marquee player and although this is high risk for obvious reasons i believe it could reap very high rewards for Sale. If they can stem his rebellious nature and get him firing at his dynamic and incisive best that is.
It still surprises me that Danny Cipriani is only 24 years old, he still has plenty of rugby in him and time to improve and master his trade and despite stiff competition there is still time to compete for that famed white jersey once again.
From then it is up to him what sort of player he wants to be remembered as.
