Two years before that, though, before a one-off Test against Wales and a tour of Australia, Jones called up Cipriani for England without giving him any game time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all out for dinner on day one, I\u2019m sitting at the end of the table and Eddie comes and sits next to me,\u201d Cipriani writes. \u201cThe first words out of his mouth are, \u2018Mate, doesn\u2019t [TV presenter] Kirsty Gallacher live around here? … What\u2019s she like?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just split up with Kirsty, after a short relationship, and it\u2019s not something I want to talk to my head coach about, or anyone else for that matter. Eddie keeps pecking, like a horny teenager, and in the end I tell him straight, \u2018Eddie, I don\u2019t want to talk about this, it\u2019s making me uncomfortable\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurprise, surprise, I\u2019m not in the squad for the summer international against Wales. He\u2019s picked a part-time No.10 ahead of me. I can\u2019t help thinking Eddie only picked me for that training camp as a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eddie Jones and Danny Cipriani.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n During the 2018 series against South Africa, Cipriani remembers a joyless England squad and has since come to the conclusion that the Rugby Football Union \u201conly employed [Jones] because they were having a crisis\u201d after the 2015 World Cup. However, named to start in Cape Town with England staring down the barrel of a sixth consecutive Test defeat, to go with an embarrassing loss to the Barbarians, Cipriani set up a crucial try for Jonny May.<\/p>\n Cipriani described his late grubber kick for May as \u201cacting on well-practised instinct\u201d but said that the changing room afterwards was less \u201cband of brothers\u201d and more \u201c23 blokes who have just completed individual missions\u201d.<\/p>\n That game would turn out to be Cipriani\u2019s 16th and final cap. As he strived for more, only to be overlooked by Jones, he wondered \u201cif shadowy figures at the RFU\u201d were influencing the England head coach. At this stage, Cipriani believed himself to be \u201cthe best decision-maker in the country, maybe the world\u201d and told Jones as much.<\/p>\n It has been levelled at Cipriani that a trio of England head coaches \u2013 Martin Johnson, Stuart Lancaster and Jones \u2013 all seemed to agree he was surplus to requirements. The man himself argues Johnson, \u201ca traditional rugby man\u201d, was \u201cnever going to want an opinionated kid like me involved\u201d. Johnson\u2019s successors, Cipriani suggests, were not honest about their reservations.<\/p>\n Cipriani is scathing of Lancaster\u2019s preparations for the World Cup in 2015, suggesting Sam Burgess also believed players were being \u201ctreated like kids\u201d by coaches, including former England assistant coach Andy Farrell.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd look at what happened at the 2011 World Cup: England were an absolute disaster,\u201d he wrote. \u201cLanny was given the job far too early and wasn\u2019t really in charge anyway. I never had a chance, what with how they wanted to play and the influence of Andy and Owen [Farrell]. But why not be honest? If you thought I was too much of a risk, just say so.\u201d<\/p>\n