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by Colin Spiro 08 October 2008
Danny Cipriani, the pin-up
boy of English rugby, was left with a bloody nose and cut
lip after a training ground bust-up with club and
international team-mate Josh Lewsey, according to press
reports.
The Wasps pair apparently
came to blows after tempers frayed, and perhaps egos too,
halting the training session as Wasps prepared for their
home Heineken Cup tie against Top 14’s Castres.
Cipriani, 20, has only
just returned to the first team after a dislocated fracture
of his ankle, a career-threatening injury that he has
overcome six weeks ahead of schedule.
Training ground conflicts
are nothing new in team sports and Wasps moved quickly to
play down the incident, claiming the pair had kissed and
made up already.
“Rugby is a fiery and
physical game and incidents like this happen in training
sessions all the time,” said a club spokesperson. “There is
no issue and there is no problem between Danny and Josh.
They are friends and team-mates.”
But the set-to highlights
that tension is running high at the defending Guinness
Premiership champions after an appalling start to the new
campaign.
The loss of legendary
captain Lawrence Dallaglio appears to have left a leadership
vacuum that is currently undermining the London club. They
stand 10th in the Premiership after losing four of their
five opening games, and last weekend were beaten by
Gloucester in the EDF Energy Cup.
Now they face Castres,
another team suffering from a crisis of confidence following
their own woeful start to the season.
The French side, which
surprised many by finishing fifth last year, are presently
second bottom of Top 14 with only one win from seven.
It makes their weekend
clash with Wasps almost a must-win match for both sides,
with Leinster and Edinburgh the other two sides in Pool B.
The pressure is clearly
getting to the players and Cipriani has been in fighting
mood both on and off the pitch in the build-up.
“We will be more aggressive, we will run
harder and we will have that edge that we lacked,” said the
precocious fly half. “It is about time we stand up and make
our fans proud.
“Shaun Edwards [coach] has
hit home with a few truths and really made a few points
clear to some of the guys. We needed it and we needed it to
be said,” he added.
Wasps go into the Heineken
Cup as 12/1 fifth favourites to lift the title they won two
years ago but Castres’ captain Lionel Nallet, despite the
importance of the game, claimed his side would be free of
pressure for the Sunday clash.
While admitting that an
away trip to Adams Park was “straight in at the deep end”
the France captain said he was relishing the cup tie.
“Our main objective this
season is to find some confidence again and reassure
ourselves against the best European teams considering our
poor start to Top 14.
“We will need to prove we
can achieve things in another tournament. We still have some
bad habits that we need to change and the players need to
work on that aspect.
“And we can do this
without great pressure because no-one expects us to achieve
anything so we have no real obligation to get results.”
Nallet believes that the
home pressure on Wasps – captained by fellow Frenchman
Raphael Ibanez – can work to Castres’ advantage, allowing
them to “play without constraints and enjoy a more flexible
style of play to express themselves and try things”.
You gotta love the French
when they can talk like that about the Heineken Cup, the
most prestigious club rugby tournament in Europe. Should be
a cracking (if error-strewn) game.
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