Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has slammed Danny Cipriani after the former England player likened the Australian to a “horny teenager” in his autobiography, Who am I?.
Cipriani, who made the last of his 16 Test appearances for England in 2018, against South Africa in Cape Town, under Jones, wrote in his autobiography that the Australian had asked him about his sex life with Kirsty Gallacher, a Scottish television presenter.
“We’re all out for dinner on day one, I’m sitting at the end of the table and Eddie comes and sits next to me,” Cipriani wrote in his book, which is being serialised in The Times. “The first words out of his mouth are, ‘Mate, doesn’t Kirsty Gallacher live around here?… What’s she like?’
“I’ve just split up with Kirsty, after a short relationship, and it’s 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, ‘Eddie, I don’t want to talk about this, it’s making me uncomfortable’.”
Jones initially declined to comment as he prepares the Wallabies team in France ahead of the Rugby World Cup, but he subsequently said in an interview with the Daily Mail that Cipriani’s claims were “preposterous” and “absurd”.
“We didn’t have a close relationship, so I’m hardly going to engage in a conversation like that with him,” Jones told the Daily Mail.
“To be quite frank, it’s a complete fabrication. We didn’t select him. When players don’t get selected, they always have an axe to grind — we know that.
“He’s selling a book, so nothing surprises me when players want to sell books. It’s absurd. It’s almost too absurd to talk about.
“I think it’s very sad for him that he feels he has to make something up to sell his book.”
Meanwhile, Wallabies hooker Dave Porecki says Australia are not thinking about their five-match losing streak as they head into their Rugby World Cup Pool C opener against Georgia in Paris on Saturday.
The return of Jones at the start of the year is yet to bear fruit, and he has chosen to blood a number of youngsters having dropped several established players for the tournament.
“It doesn’t feel like an environment that is 0-5 right now,” Porecki said on Monday. “I guess we all understand the assignment for this year, which was to build and gel a new group.
“I genuinely feel like we are moving in the right direction. It doesn’t feel like a losing environment, but rather a winning one.
“We have a good group of young [players] in their first year and they are the ones you keep your eye on to make sure they fit into the system well. And they have so far.”
Australia lost 41-17 to World Cup hosts France in their final warm-up fixture late last month, but Porecki said their forwards could take confidence from the performance as they matched the French at the set-pieces.
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“We did well against France as a pack, which was a confidence booster,” he said.
“What would be better now is if we can back it up. Not just in the scrum but build up performances consistently to the point where we get into the final stages here (at the World Cup) hissing.”
Georgia, renowned for their strong forwards, will present an immediate challenge to that.
“A lot of their game is direct, set-piece, and they love the physical battle and close contact,” Porecki said.
“For us as a forward pack specifically, we have to be up for the fight.
“They are building in confidence as a team and why wouldn’t you, they have a good pack and can get front-foot ball and a clean set-piece. That is how you disrupt teams.”
Australia also have Wales, Fiji and Portugal in their pool.
– Information from Reuters was used in this report