Danny Cipriani and Eddie Jones in South Africa in 2014
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Danny Cipriani has accused former England head coach Eddie Jones of acting like a “horny teenager” in probing into his private life.
The former fly half endured a sometimes difficult relationship with Jones, with Cipriani earning only a handful of caps under the Australian despite impressive club form.
In his soon-to-be published autobiography, Who Am I?, the 35-year-old opens up on his dealings with Jones, recalling one conversation after he had been picked for an early summer training camp in Bagshot shortly after being left out for the coach’s first Six Nations campaign.
Cipriani had recently broken up with television presenter Kirsty Gallacher, and claims that Jones immediately quizzed him on the relationship.
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“It’s May 2016, and Eddie’s picked me for a three-day training camp at Pennyhill Park,” Cipriani said in his memoir, serialised in The Times.
“We’re all out for dinner on day one, I’m sitting at the end of the table and Eddie comes and sits next to me.
“The first words out of his mouth are, ‘Mate, doesn’t Kirsty Gallacher live around here? Haven’t you shagged her? What’s she like?’
“I’ve just split up with Kirsty, after a short relationship, and it’s not something I want to talk to my head coach about, or anyone else for that matter. Eddie keeps pecking, like a horny teenager, and in the end I tell him straight, “Eddie, I don’t want to talk about this, it’s making me uncomfortable.’”
Cipriani was a bit-part figure under Jones, whose seven year tenure in charge of England ended last December.
The playmaker, considered one of the brightest attacking talents of his generation, started only once for his country under the head coach, engineering a third test win in South Africa in 2018.
And Cipriani feels that Jones could have done more to try and understand his character.
“After leaving me out of his squad for the 2016 autumn internationals, Eddie says I’m only happy being No 1, the main man, insinuating I’d be disruptive if I wasn’t in the starting XV,” Cipriani continues in his book.
“Owen Farrell’s injured, so is his Saracens understudy Alex Lozowski, who left Wasps after I signed, is picked ahead of me. Eddie has had two conversations with me, the first when he pulled apart my man-of-the-match display against France, the second when he wanted to know who I’d been shagging.
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“If he really got to know me, he’d realise I’d happily sit on the bench for England. I can only conclude that Eddie doesn’t want to understand, that’s it’s more convenient and easier for him to judge me on my past.”
Jones will coach Australia at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, which begins in Paris on Friday 8 September.
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