“I think it’s very sad for him” – Eddie Jones slams Danny Cipriani’s comments
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“Sad.”
Former England boss Eddie Jones has slammed Danny Cipriani for comments made about him in the player’s new autobiography.
Jones and Cipriani didn’t have the best of relationships, with the England boss overlooking the talented outhalf on a number of occasions, despite his excellent form in the Premiership during large parts of Jones’ tenure.
In Cipriani’s soon-to-be published autobiography ‘Who am I?’, the playmaker revealed that Jones was more interested in his private life during a training camp in 2016, calling him a “horny teenager.”
“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,” Cipriani said in his book via The Times.
“The first words out of his mouth are, ‘Mate, doesn’t Kirsty Gallagher 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 without doubt the form 10 when Jones first took over England back in 2016 but missed out on his first squad before playing a bit part over the next few years…
“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 added.
“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.
But Jones has now fired back at Cipriani, pointing out that “he’s selling a book” while brushing off his comments. Jones goes as far as calling Cipriani “sad” and accusing him of making stuff up to sell the book.
“We didn’t have a close relationship, so I’m hardly going to engage in a conversation like that with him,” Jones told the Daily Mail.
“To be quite frank, it’s a complete fabrication. We didn’t select him. When players don’t get selected, they always have an axe to grind — we know that.
“He’s selling a book, so nothing surprises me when players want to sell books. It’s absurd. It’s almost too absurd to talk about.
“I think it’s very sad for him that he feels he has to make something up to sell his book.”