sport

Ashton unrepentant over Cipriani

Ashton: 'I don't think I am a Draconian sort of coach'

England coach Brian Ashton has defended his decision to ditch Danny Cipriani for Saturday's Calcutta Cup clash against Scotland - but revealed the youngster will be back on international duty on Monday.

While England concentrate on keeping alive their Six Nations title hopes by targeting victory over the Scots at Murrayfield, Cipriani is now preparing for Wasps' Guinness Premiership appointment with Harlequins the following day.

He should have been in Edinburgh making his first England start at full-back.

But after he was pictured leaving a London nightspot early on Thursday morning, Ashton took unprecedented action for an England head coach and promptly dropped the gifted 20-year-old.

The Cipriani affair has overshadowed Saturday's encounter at Murrayfield, which sees England chasing a third successive away win in this season's tournament.

And however hard Ashton tried to deflect questions about 'Dannygate' at his pre-match press conference in central Edinburgh, the saga would not go away.

Ashton said: "I am going to answer this once, and that's it, because I have got a game tomorrow that is really important in the context of our season.

"As I've said, it was my decision alone. I thought his behaviour was inappropriate for an international rugby player almost 48 hours before a Test match away against Scotland.

"I didn't consider any other form of action.

"I spoke to Danny Cipriani, and I am very comfortable what I said to him. I've known him a long time, and he will be back in camp on Monday night.

"It will have no bearing on his future selection."

Cipriani can take a crumb of comfort from knowing he will be part of Ashton's training squad preparing to meet Ireland at Twickenham next week.

But Ashton fought a losing battle in trying to put tomorrow's game, rather than Cipriani, back on top of the England agenda.

He claimed it had not been a distraction for the squad and also responded to criticism from the likes of Wasps rugby director Ian McGeechan, Wasps coach Shaun Edwards and ex-England captain Matt Dawson.

Ashton added: "Put it this way, I don't think I am a Draconian sort of coach at all, despite what people might have said about me in the past 24 hours.

"I respect everybody's opinion. It just happens that I am the man in charge and I make the decision. Someone has to.

"To be honest it does not interest me [what people think].

"I had two conversations with Ian McGeechan yesterday. I respect his position. Ian's got his job to do and he does it exceptionally well. I've got my job to do."

Ashton said there was no "set time" in terms of a curfew on England players.

"There is a code of conduct, but I am not going to go into that because it is confidential with the players.

"It has been drawn up for the players.

"I don't expect guys to behaving inappropriately 48 hours, or close to, before a Test match."

Cipriani himself issued an unreserved apology and admitted that he had made a mistake.

"Playing for England means absolutely everything to me and I am totally heartbroken not to be now taking part in Saturday's match against Scotland," he told The Sun.

"It is a harsh punishment but I will take it on the chin and dwell on what I have done wrong. I have already learnt an extremely painful lesson for one brief moment of naivety.

"I have made a mistake and I am truly sorry.

"I've digested what happened and fully accept I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Rules are rules and I realise that popping into a nightclub, even though it was barely for 15 minutes, was not something I should have been doing."

Cipriani's absence though, gives Gloucester full-back Iain Balshaw - he was dropped just three days ago - another chance.

Ashton added: "I hope Iain Balshaw responds very positively.

"I would imagine he has worked out for himself what he needs to do tomorrow to perform as an international full-back should perform.

"I felt in the first half of the Wales game there were signs he was somewhere back to his international-best form.

"He looked in exceptionally good shape, he was looking incredibly quick, and I just feel since that first 40 minutes in the two-and-a-half games since then we haven't actually got the best out of him in that way.

"I would think that he would look upon this as a remarkable opportunity to prove that what I did in leaving him out of the team was the wrong decision.

"I hope he can turn around to me in the dressing room tomorrow and stick two fingers up at me and say it was the wrong decision."

England, beaten 18-12 on their last Murrayfield visit two years ago, should prove too strong for a Scotland side that has lost three successive Six Nations games this term and scored just one try.

But Ashton warned: "Potentially, at this moment in time, they are a very dangerous side to be playing against.

"We had this situation last season at the end of the tournament against Wales, and we lost when we were expected to win.

"We've had it before when Scotland have had a bad run of results and beaten us. They don't like losing to England, full stop, and they are not going to want to lose their last home game of the Six Nations.

"If they lose this game then they go to Italy and could well be playing for a wooden spoon. From a motivational point of view if you stick all that lot together it is pretty strong.

"We are expecting one hell of a battle tomorrow.

"Like one of the players said earlier in the week, they seem to grow six inches in height and five metres quicker when they see a white shirt with a red rose in front of them."