The possibility of Danny Cipriani featuring at this year's Rugby World Cup is still alive after the Gloucester outhalf was added to England's summer training squad. Cipriani still has work to do to convince Eddie Jones to pick him in the final selection of 31 but now finally has an opportunity to impress the management in a training camp at the Lensbury Club.
Cipriani, voted the Premiership player of the year by his peers last season, has been joined by fellow Gloucester players Willi Heinz and Ollie Thorley and the Northampton pair Piers Francis and Courtney Lawes. The Harlequins duo of Marcus Smith and Kyle Sinckler, however, are returning to their club and will not be involved in this camp.
Saracens and Exeter players will also not feature until the official training squad is confirmed at Japan House next Thursday but Jones said he has so far been encouraged by the physical condition of all his players. “It has been a really positive week, we have worked on our fundamentals of the game, a little bit of physical conditioning and I am really pleased with the attitude of the players,” he said.
“They have all come back from their leave in excellent condition and the best I have seen in the time I have been with England.”
Exeter's Jack Nowell, along with George Kruis and Mako Vunipola, will also attend the camp to continue their rehabilitation. "Next week we will add some players and be looking to improve our physical conditioning, ability to understand how we want to play the game and start to increase the pressure at training," added Jones. "We have a couple of players going back to their clubs as we feel it is in their best interests in terms of the World Cup to do that. We will consider their participation in the squad further down the track." – Guardian
