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Austin Healey
Danny Cipriani — Danny Cipriani is not a wasted talent — he was never that good anyway
I remember when Danny Cipriani first burst onto the scene at full-back for Wasps. He was quick, talented, with a bit of edge about him and he got stuck in defensively. Admittedly, he never really tackled 'properly' but he would get stuck in regardless.
The (now former) Gloucester fly-half is someone who played rugby with his heart but who also lived his life with his heart. He's obviously a complicated individual with lots going on in his personal life, but in Gloucester's season-opening loss at Leicester, he was a complete and utter mess. I know his career is not over, but I fear he has reached a stage in his life where his heart may no longer be in it.
Ben Youngs has won 102 caps for England and Danny will finish with 16. Yet Danny is more famous, more notorious. Why is that? Why is an English rugby centurion less well-known than someone who does not even have 20 caps?
In truth, Danny never really hit the heights with England because he was never good enough. He was nowhere near as good as George Ford or Owen Farrell. He has thrown some amazing passes, he's box office with an immense highlights reel, but if you were to play his 80-minute reel you would see a lot more negative than positive. You cannot play international rugby when your goal-kicking percentage starts with a seven - at best - either.
As a player, he was only ever world class in his ability to manipulate an opposition defence - his distribution and passing - but only when it was on his terms. And that sums up everything about him.
When everything is on his terms, he is great. But when he has to work for something or something is going slightly against him, he reverts back to 'Media Cipriani'.
I spoke to him once and I told him that, whether he took it on board or not, I had been through similar things, someone who was seen as a loose cannon, a maverick. But when you get to 40 you look back and think, 'What could I have done differently?'. If you look back with regret then you're going to have demons to deal with.
When I was 19 or 20, Danny's age when he first started making a name for himself with Wasps, I knew I should have been playing for England. I was good enough to play anywhere in the backline but I was not being picked because the perception was that I was a loose cannon and I might be dangerous to the squad's chemistry. It's no coincidence that as soon as I announced I was getting married I received my first England call-up - it was seen as a sign of me settling down, that I was no longer this loose cannon.
Danny has never been able to change people's perceptions of him. He worked hard and he trained hard, but he has never put to bed the perception that he could be disruptive to a squad. You can be as much of a gifted maverick as you like, but the common goal has to be the team. And when it isn't, people turn on you.
What's next? He should go back to playing like he did when he was 10 years old. It's not about the money, the fame, Twitter, or Instagram, or television. It's about playing rugby from your heart like you did when you were a kid, and getting stuck in for your mates. Go and get some scars and be a bit more laissez-faire with your own safety and vanity. Maybe he has ambitions for a media career? From what I've seen thus far, I'd be surprised.
What Danny needed more than anything was a father figure in the game, someone to put their arm around him, which is what I had to a certain extent with Dean Richards. I had a bad year in 1998 when I went a bit off the rails and started doing my own thing and thought I was bigger than the club. I went through that. When someone puts your arm around you in that situation, rather than fights you, they tend to get the best out of you. He either hasn't had that - maybe for a short period with Shaun Edwards at Wasps - or he hasn't let it in.
We might have less to talk about now, but Gloucester will be better off without him.
Always a Wasp