Danny Cipriani claims 'there is too much ego and fear in rugby'

Former England international Danny Cipriani has called on Gallagher Premiership rugby to quickly heed the wake-up call that is the financial collapse of Wasps and Worcester and start being more open in how the sport promotes itself. The 2022/23 top flight has been embarrassingly thrown into chaos in recent weeks with the suspension of two clubs from the 13-team competition that so many in the English game believe is the best event in club rugby anywhere in the world.

That is a boast that hasn’t staked up with Wasps poised to be automatically relegated on Monday once they officially fall into administration, joining Worcester in the Championship for the 2023/24 season. As entertaining as the product has been on the pitch – and there have been some spectacularly entertaining matches of late – the sport has been left vulnerable by being a largely debt-ridden mess.

It’s a situation that Cipriani believes must now be swiftly tackled and he used his latest Sportsmanil column to share his thoughts on what needs to be done to rescue the Premiership and English rugby in general. “Rugby is failing and it can’t keep hiding away from that.

“I’m shocked about what’s happening at Wasps – and at Worcester too – but I’m not shocked about the state that the game is in because its whole culture isn’t moving with the times,” he began. “It is time for change on so many levels, from the way rugby is run as a business, right down to how the game is coached. We need to drop our stiff-upper-lip mentality; our bravado which feels like we’ve just ignored the state of the game – which is masked by how successful our international game is and always has been.

“There’s too much ego and fear in rugby. We need to be having more honest, truthful, vulnerable conversations which will hopefully move rugby into a new light and a new way of thinking; to accentuate the strength of our game and give it a brighter future.”

Cipriani, who spent 14 years of his career playing in the Premiership for Wasps, Sale, Gloucester and Bath before he exited The Rec last June, insisted that the people working in the game must become more open about what they do. “From team selection to the way businesses are run, or even to the way coaches speak in the media, you need to have an open book and an accessible attitude, but we don’t have that in rugby. What’s everyone trying to hide? Why are we not being open?”

“Northampton letting cameras film behind the scenes is a good step, for sure,” he later added. “Rugby needs to be more open, instead of hiding away, as if they’re protecting the next best thing. It needs more cognitive diversity, with leaders in the sport who are humble enough to allow free and open debate and sharing of ideas.

“In rugby, we have created this situation now, with everything we have tried to hide and sweep under the carpet. It’s about how the game is often coached, as well as how the business is run. This is the wake-up call rugby needed.”