Danny gets the chop
25 Nov 2008
Martin Johnson has axed Danny Cipriani for England’s Test against the All Blacks.
Cipriani has been talked up by the English press but the past three weekends have shown this to be more hot air than anything else. Cipriani had three kicks charged down against the Boks (one resulted in Ruan Pienaar’s try), was weary in defence, and failed to ignite the backline, and as a result he’s been replaced by Toby Flood.
Opensider Tom Rees has also been dropped as Michael Lipman comes in. Lock Tom Palmer makes way for Nick Kennedy, who will win his second cap after scoring on debut against the Pacific Islanders.
Johnson has brought Leicester centre Danny Hipkiss into the 22 as he opts for a conventional bench of four forwards and three backs for the first time under his tutelage.
England – 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Riki Flutey, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Michael Lipman, 6 James Haskell, 5 Nick Kennedy, 4 Steve Borthwick (c), 3 Phil Vickery, 2 Lee Mears, 1 Tim Payne.
Subs: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Tom Croft, 19 Tom Rees, 20 Harry Ellis, 21 Danny Cipriani, 22 Danny Hipkiss.
167 Comments
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25 Nov 2008, 19:08 pm
#141 Big Hit: The poms have never beaten nz in wc match, have they?
25 Nov 2008, 20:17 pm
#99 BlackPanther: I hope so. The RWC was 12 months in the past.
Let’s beat your men in black 2 out of 3 next year and I will be happy.
I could give a fk about the 2007 RWC. (Although at that moment in time I was very, very happy)
25 Nov 2008, 20:29 pm
How many Englishmen will make the Lions team?
25 Nov 2008, 20:35 pm
#7 Redox: They will have brad barrit in there soon enough…
25 Nov 2008, 20:54 pm
#144 BlackPanther:
‘SA didnt play France and beat them. In fact, the 3 teams SA has the worst record against are France, Australia and NZ, particularly under Jake White, all the teams they avoided at RWC07. Good luck to them too, but most teams would be happy with avoiding 1 tough team let alone all 3 of them’.
again this is true, but try telling this to some die hard paranoids on here and you could also run the risk of joining the ‘you peoples’ club
25 Nov 2008, 21:50 pm
It seems all the NH talk during the 3N and the June touring season by the NH is coming to nought. All the “wait till we put our best team on the park” has proven to be a lot of hot air.
The NH premiership and the 6N is clearly inferior to the S14 and 3N and the results prove it.
NH are not strong enough to send weakened sides to the south,that is positively clear and SA,Aus and NZ must put their feet down about this issue. Proffessional football in the NH has put too much power in the hands of the clubs whose bottom line is profit not the health of rugby union.
NZ and SA are clearly the best rugby teams in the world with australia coming a close third.
What will happen now is that NZ will get top seeding AGAIN for the Rugby World Cup, be placed in the pool of minnows, beat them up by 80+ points then struggle when they meet the real teams in the knockout.
Australia proved(once again) in the Rugby league World cup that the best team doesnt necessarily win the tournament. Teams need to build throughout the tournament and its vital in these sorts of competitions that your squad has early high pressure games, almost losing seems to have a beneficial effect (ie SA last Cup)
Whatever happened last year for the ABs , Henry,hansen and Smith have proven themselves and should be congratulated. They lost 11 test players in their squad yet they are again No1. All the critics need to be eating their words
25 Nov 2008, 22:14 pm
#89 greenbok:
I think the tri nations made him feel better as well as keeping SA at home scorless kept his mind of things.Little ole bill is a cup that does not give you the right to win games shame really isnt it
25 Nov 2008, 22:40 pm
#123 Big Hit:
The ole poached is a bit rich comin from a Pom.You have been poaching,slaving and taken land of many for thousands of years,we do it a couple of times in rugby and look what happens.Braveheart was a great movie wasnt it.
26 Nov 2008, 05:49 am
#121 greenbok: well well, and I thought it was only us AB supporters that were arrogant, hypocrisy is alive and well… just for the record, what is the head to head betwenn the ABs and SA ??? 42-30 or about that, that is the only stat that is really worth reading, and I would like to see it starting just from professionalism… so yeah, if a 6 week knockout tournament is to you the ultimate test of rugby supremacy, then I can see that it wont be too long before rugby is as dead as league is…
#142 Big Hit: you are a tiresome little boy, you bring the same vile and venom as your obvious hatred of anything NZ shows, and has for the amount of years you come on here and berate them…you bring up the same old arguments… the english backrow outplayed NZ when they toured hahahaha yeah right, as the scoreline suggests it so… and heres one big hit, your team has beaten mine 6 times in about 30 outings, so really, until your team can consistently match mine, your opinions dont account for much… how can you of all people say who is the best player in the world, when you consistantly watch your team get beaten by all and sundry… we dont want you fawning over our team, but a little respect will go a long way…. thats all we ask… but then you believe everything printed in your media (as most brainless poms do) , then sprout off on here, and once the facts are presented you go awfully quiet…. face it, england are second rate, have always been second rate, have the largest base of players in the world, and are still complete garbage… and at last look, you didnt beat Australia, in fact your scrum looked like theres a few weeks back…
26 Nov 2008, 05:51 am
#98 Big Hit: Big Hits self delusion regarding the All Blacks reminds me of Comical Ali in the fall of Baghdad.
26 Nov 2008, 07:24 am
Chippalatti
26 Nov 2008, 07:58 am
haha from hero to zero before you even reach the climax of your career..gotta suck..but hey- serves him right for thinking he’s the new Wilko or is as good as Carter…
26 Nov 2008, 12:27 pm
#160 refugee:
lol.One in the same
26 Nov 2008, 18:45 pm
#162 tarryn:
To be fair, he didn’t, that was the UK Press, as usual. Build em up, cut em down – same old formula that sells papers.
#158 Hurricane:
Big Twit is an imposter, placed by Keo to provoke arguments with the sole goal of creating more comments on this site.
Starve the guy of oxygen and he will slowly drown in his own bile. Well, hopefully.
26 Nov 2008, 20:50 pm
#131 BlackPanther: The same as you drawing France everytime, or the same as you not drawing SA in ’87 or in ’91
The same as what it does not matter who you play as long as you have won the RWC final
26 Nov 2008, 20:51 pm
#159 poppa69: From the crowd attendance in NZ I would reckon that it is dead
26 Nov 2008, 23:56 pm
#166 JL1:
Yeah cos crowds have a lot to do with it dosnt it?
I live 5 mins from Jade stadium (AMI Stadium) and i have been to 2 games there in 5 years.I am a huge fan
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