Cipriani: answering Ashton's call

In the modern game, if you stand deep and fail to deliver on your kicking as a No 10, then you're out of the team. That's what has happened.

Dewi Morris on Jonny Wilkinson.
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If you criticise Jonny Wilkinson you're seen as a heretic, but any regular rugby watcher would have to say that his omission from the England side to play Ireland was almost inevitable.

If you compare Danny Cipriani's recent performances with Wilkinson's lame displays then there was only one choice Brian Ashton should have made. Belatedly, he has made it.

Against Scotland, a schoolboy could have done better than Wilkinson with his positional kicking - never his best attribute, despite a phenomenal place-kicking record - and, despite a back-line featuring the likes of Paul Sackey and Lesley Vainikolo, we never asked the opposition any questions.

Not until Charlie Hodgson came on with 10 minutes left did we see a fly-half take the ball flat and get us over the gain line. In the modern game, if you stand deep and fail to deliver on your kicking, then you're out of the team. That's what has happened.

People will say: 'Wilkinson's the world-record points-holder'. I don't care about that. You have to select according to form, not reputation, and all I care about is watching an attractive England. At the moment...well...I can't say the words I want to use to describe them, and I would have been embarrassed to collect my wages after the nature of the defeat to Scotland.

Spark

You need a No 10 who has pace, who can have a go and spark a backline, and this guy Cipriani has been doing it week in-week out for Wasps.

He should have been in from the start and told he had five or six games to prove himself. It didn't happen after the World Cup, but it has happened now and he has to be given a run in the side.

There will be pressure on the 20-year-old - for the right or wrong reasons he has a profile almost as high as Wilkinson's already - but I think he will cope with it.

People say Cipriani is arrogant, but I don't care how arrogant he is as long as we have four or five tries to talk about on Saturday - regardless of the result.

And let's be clear, this is about the performance and not the result. We were led to believe after the World Cup that Brian Ashton would pursue a more performance-led agenda; that he would bring in new blood and aim to build a team for the 2011 World Cup.

He hasn't done that, and Brian and his coaches only have themselves to blame for the pressure they now find themselves under. I hope for Brian's sake he is given another go, but he has to take recent events as a kick up the backside, loosen up and be true to himself.

The England coaching team have been so obsessed with results and with smashing the opposition at the set-piece. It may have worked against a France side playing suicidal rugby, but ultimately it's come back to bite Brian on the backside.

One thing's for sure - the fans who trudged up to Murrayfield and will be there again at Twickenham on Sunday will not accept just a scrappy 12-9 win. I know because I get to hear their complaints every time I walk through the west car park at HQ.

Exhilarating

It has to be an exhilarating performance of free-flowing rugby, and I know we'll see that from Cipriani. He won't be standing back in the pocket, he'll be trying to make things happen. And if he makes a few mistakes, so what?

The England coaches have waited until the 11th hour to change things, and even then there are three or four others who can count themselves lucky still to be in the team.

Brian knows my views. I wouldn't have too much problem with the back-line because they're young and sparky, and having Cipriani at fly-half has to bring out something in them.

But you rely on the forwards to win you the ball, and there are other combinations he could have used. I would have Matt Stevens at tight head - Phil Vickery was made captain not on the basis of form, but because he was good to Brian at the World Cup.

Simon Shaw and Nick Easter are honest players, but there are better second-rows than Shaw. James Haskell should be starting - not on the bench.

Brian has probably taken the approach that this is the last throw of the dice and said to the players: 'I've stuck with you, now go out and stop my head rolling and your own heads rolling.'

If they don't perform against Ireland, it could be the last time some of these players pull on an England shirt.

Stuart Barnes will be back from his annual pilgrimage to Cheltenham next week. Please continue to send in your questions and he will answer them on his return.

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