Danny Cipriani’s World Cup hopes were left hanging by a thread on Thursday after the flyhalf was left out of the England squad for the November internationals despite a stellar start to the season for new club Gloucester.
The 30-year-old was omitted from a training squad picked by coach Eddie Jones in September when he was described as England’s “third or fourth choice flyhalf.”
Jones reiterated that Cipriani still has “things to work on” as he chose just two number 10s – Owen Farrell and George Ford.
Despite a slew of injuries and suspensions, particularly among the forwards, Jones also surprisingly overlooked Exeter’s supremely consistent Don Armand.
Instead Ben Morgan, whose last game was at the 2015 World Cup, is recalled while 21-year-old Zach Mercer, one of eight uncapped players in the squad, was handed an unexpected chance to force himself into the World Cup reckoning.
The other seven new faces are Joe Cokanasiga (Bath), Nathan Earle (Harlequins), Ted Hill (Worcester Warriors), Ben Moon (Exeter), Michael Rhodes (Saracens), Nick Schonert (Worcester Warriors) and Elliott Stooke (Bath).
England start the first of four November tests at Twickenham against South Africa on Nov. 3, before an eagerly-awaited showdown against New Zealand on November 10. They then play Japan on November 17 and finish off against Australia a week later.
Farrell and Dylan Hartley have been named co-captains for all four tests in which Jones will need to forge new combinations with the World Cup in Japan less than a year away.
Among the key injury absentees are Billy and Mako Vunipola, Joe Launchbury, Chris Robshaw and Sam Simmonds, while Nathan Hughes is suspended for the first three games
Chris Ashton and Ben Te’o, yet to play for their clubs this season, are included, while ever-reliable Saracens scrumhalf Richard Wigglesworth is recalled.
“It’s been quite continuous, so we are getting quite good at this,” Jones said of dealing with the absentees.
“We’ve lost 320 caps’ of players, 80 percent of those in the forwards. That puts a bit of a hole in the experience of the forwards. We are going to have to find different ways for making up for that experience but we’ve got some good young guys coming through so it’s quite exciting for us.”
On the absence of Cipriani, who started and played a key part in England’s victory over South Africa in June and has won a slew of man-of-the-match awards for Gloucester this season, Jones said: “I’ve had discussions with him, he understands there are things he needs to keep working on.”
Whether those “work-ons” are defensive vulnerability or his potential to upset the squad dynamic, Jones declined to say. The Australian’s promise that the World Cup door remained open is unlikely to leave Cipriani expecting a late call up.
