Former England rugby star Austin Healey warns Danny Cipriani to change attitude – Rugby News
Austin Healey, the former English rugby star has warned the Melbourne Rebels’ player Danny Cipriani to change his attitude before it becomes too late for him.
The statement has come after Cipriani’s team-mates yesterday cast a no confidence vote against him for breaching the team’s code of conduct several times. The players and team management straight away said that they have lost their confidence in the fly-half.
Danny had a series of off-field misdeeds during the past few weeks and his team warned him several times but he did not bother. He was accused of stealing a vodka bottle from a local casino just after the opening match of Melbourne Rebels against Waratahs.
Later he was dropped from his team for one match against the Queensland Reds, for reaching late night at his team’s hotel. Next morning he could not participate in the practice session and was warned be careful in future. Yet again, Danny over ruled his
team’s caution and was late the next night as well. His continuous bad behaviour forced the team management to take stern action against him and he has been dropped from the side for the South African tour.
Healey found the player rude and cautioned him to recommit with the code of conduct of his team. Austin warned that, "There's a post-career resentment that you get whether you've had a great career or not. And if you know you messed it all up yourself it
becomes a lot more powerful. When Danny gets to 35-40, people will have to start taking his belt and his shoe laces off him because he'll hate and resent himself for it."
Austin admitted that Cipriani has got real talent which was not being utilised. He argued, “Danny's obviously got plenty of talent but from what I've seen it looks like he's gone off the rails. He needs to go somewhere where he just plays rugby, not cruises
around town thinking he's some sort of big shot because, let's be honest, he's not.”
The Melbourne Rebels’ coach Rod McQueen was warned about Cipriani behavioural problems before signing him, but he argued that he would improve with the passage of time.
Tags: