Right to drop Danny
World Cup winner backs decision to ditch Cipriani
Last updated: 7th March 2008
Greenwood: backing Ashton
It was going to be the biggest day of his career, he's finally got his chance and he'd been picked. So what do you do on your day off? You do NOT go to a nightclub - fact - three days before an England game.
Will Greenwood
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Will Greenwood believes Brian Ashton was right to axe Danny Cipriani.
The Wasps prodigy was sensationally dropped from England's squad for the Six Nations clash with Scotland after being photographed leaving a London nightspot early on Thursday morning.
Brian Ashton immediately removed him from the squad for "inappropriate behaviour", recalling Iain Balshaw at full-back - and sparking furious debate on The Rugby Club.
Stuart Barnes accused the England coach of "using a sledgehammer to crack a 20-year-old nut", Dewi Morris wondered whether the action would be the same if it were an established star, but for Greenwood, there was only one person at fault.
"The Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday before a Test match you've done your hard graft and your day off is when you need rest, 24 hours before you get sent away to train in Bath," he explained.
Nightclubs
"You're flying from London so you're allowed to go back and sleep in your own bed, have a nice quiet relaxing evening, have a meal with your mates.
"But nightclubs? Walking out of a nightclub after midnight? I don't buy it. He's gone out to the West End looking for a venue, he's out with his mates."
It is not known whether the England squad were under curfew and Wasps insist that Cipriani was not drinking.
But Greenwood, who won the World Cup under Sir Clive Woodward, believes Ashton has made the right decision as he tries to build for the future.
"Cipriani is not yet, but he is going to become an English icon and you're a northern school teacher of a coach - you are Brian Ashton - and you are trying to build something, you are looking forward two or three years, you're setting down a code of discipline.
"Clive Woodward would never have expected anyone to be photographed in a nightclub, I don't think Warren Gatland would put up with anyone being in a nightclub three days before a Test match.
"It was going to be the biggest day of his career, he's finally got his chance and he'd been picked. So what do you do on your day off? You do NOT go to a nightclub - fact - three days before an England game."
Draconian
Barnes had already labelled the punishment as Draconian and insists Cipriani wouldn't have been axed had he not been snapped in the capital.
Morris admitted he had some reservations about the Wasps man actually starting in the Six Nations and to an extent, agreed that the Wasps man had been "so naive".
But he does believe it might have been a different outcome had it been one of England's senior players or one without a playboy image.
"I think Brian has come out and told the squad of 22 - if there was a curfew or not it doesn't matter - I'm going to clamp down on this," he said.
"But my one question would be if that was Jonny Wilkinson or Simon Shaw, what would he say then?"
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