Deans heaps praise on Cipriani
Robbie Deans went from cursing Danny Cipriani during the match to praising him strongly as the former Wallabies boss reflected on leading the Barbarians to their heaviest ever defeat on Sunday.
Deans, like his players, appeared fairly shell-shocked from the 12-73 thrashing the tourists took at the hands of an England side made up of fringe players.
He was powerless as his side was torn apart in painful, emphatic fashion by an impressive bunch of World Cup wannabes who thrilled the home crowd with a 10-try display – that included a hat-trick for Wasps' wing Christian Wade.
The BaaBaas' previous heaviest defeat was 8-59 to the British and Irish Lions in Hong Kong in 2013.
Flyhalf Cipriani, who is third choice behind George Ford and Owen Farrell, scored two tries of his own and his 33-point personal haul was the highest by any England individual against the Barbarians.
Former Wasps man Cipriani has revived his international career after a disjointed career filled with serious injury and off-the-field problems which led him to be dumped by former England head coach Martin Johnson for a lack of discipline. Now, he is one of Stuart Lancaster's summer training camp party, set to meet up in three weeks time.
"Cipriani was great. He would have loved that ride he got out there and took his chance really well. He's clearly a bloke who has worked really hard over a long period of time.
"That's a good indicator of where he is at and all credit to him. I expect Stuart [Lancaster] will be looking at him and the fact he made 100 percent off his boot today will not do him any harm.
"He had the experience of playing club rugby in Australia for a while – which is good grounding – and he's come back well from that and knuckled down," Deans said.
AFP
