Cipriani roars into top gear after three false starts

Graceful on the field, a little graceless off it, the Wasps fly-half set England buzzing. Richard Williams reports

He had the first word, telling the forwards in the pre-match huddle exactly what he expected from them, and the last, when he chipped home the final penalty five minutes from time even though his standing foot was slipping as he hurried his kick after the ball had twice fallen off the tee. After his stuttering entrance as an England international - stranded by a wayward pass from Jonny Wilkinson against Wales six weeks ago, embarrassed by his own charged-down kick in Rome the following weekend, then expelled in disgrace from the line-up at Murrayfield - nothing was going to spoil Danny Cipriani's big day.

The 20-year-old's presence transformed the way England operated. After more than an entire World Cup cycle of searching for a smooth linkage between backs and forwards, it was as though someone had finally decided to drop a little oil on the hinge. Cipriani's fluid movement, his decisiveness and the exquisite timing of his passes brought the two parts of the team back into a productive cooperation, and once again the white shirts were moving with the purposeful smoothness they enjoyed before anxiety and pragmatism began to stifle their sense of adventure in the run-up to the 2003 triumph.

Brian Ashton had been the backs coach during that sunlit interlude of the Woodward era, when England seemed to be about to produce the expansive, expressive rugby of their dreams and promises. Cipriani's arrival holds out the possibility of a return to such values, his success also reviving Ashton's chances of hanging on to his job, although it will take success against sterner opposition than a disintegrating Ireland to silence critics of the Lancastrian's policies.

Can one player do so much to alter the fortunes of a squad? When he is Danny Cipriani, and when he is replacing Jonny Wilkinson, the answer must be yes. On Saturday we could see how much difference fearless optimism, youthful speed and a full range of skills can make in the pivotal position when they replace a great but more limited talent whose horizons have been narrowed by prolonged mental and physical attrition.

There was no stopping Cipriani's ebullience. "I've been given the job of playing fly-half for England and I can't come in quietly," he said. "I know people have been saying I'm arrogant but I have to do a job and if I go about it half-heartedly it's not going to work. I had to make sure we were going the right way. I was trying to talk all the time today."

He had been anticipating the details of this occasion for half his short life and he was thinking about them again when he woke at four o'clock on the morning of the game, remembering the words of his sprint coach, Margot Wells. "I'd spoken to her before I went to sleep and she said, 'You're probably not going to sleep that long but it's not going to affect the way you play.' I was playing the game in my head and making every thought a positive one. Margot tries to make you mentally strong so that when something goes wrong you just move on. After 10 minutes we found ourselves 10 points down and we had to move on. They didn't score again."

He accumulated his first points for England with a flawless seven kicks out of seven, and when Toby Flood was replaced after 53 minutes by Wilkinson there was no question of transferring the responsibility to a man who had become the world's leading international points scorer only a week earlier. Wilkinson himself was the first to get the message when Jon Callard, England's kicking coach, approached him as he was stripping off.

"I could see JC was panicking in his eyes a bit, thinking, 'I've got to tell him that Danny's going to keep kicking,'" Wilkinson said. "I told him, 'I can't believe you've even bothered coming to discuss it with me. Danny's already hit four from four. What's the issue here?' I guess if I was a person who was lost in pride - but that's not the way it is. People have come up to me this week and said, 'Well done on the way you've behaved.' That's nice, but you think, 'What other way is there to behave in a team when you get put on the bench? Do you kick up a fuss or start shouting at meetings or set other people's wake-up calls for four in the morning? What way is there other than to say Danny Cipriani deserves his go'? And he's taken it brilliantly."

We can be sure that Jonny would never have committed the verbal indiscretion for which Cipriani found himself apologising in his post-match television interview. Wilkinson's humility, grace under pressure and sheer dedication have lent him an aura that his decline as a player cannot tarnish, and his appearance was greeted by an ovation suffused with a valedictory warmth. Twickenham had already seen that Cipriani is something else again: a force of nature who, by a very different path, could lead England back to their promised land.

Five flying starts

b>Alexander Obolensky

Russian prince scored two tries, the first a 75-yard run, in a 13-0 win over All Blacks at Twickenham in 1936. Still England's biggest margin of victory against New Zealand

Keith Jarrett

A centre playing full-back, the 18-year-old scored a long-range try and kicked two penalties and five conversions in Wales's 34-21 win over England at the Arms Park in 1967. Went to league, and retired at 25

Tim Horan

Australia lost the 1989 Bledisloe Cup game 24-12 but the young centre was so impressive his opposite number, Smokin' Joe Stanley, gave him his shirt. Won two World Cups

Christian Cullen

All Black full-back scored a hat-trick against Samoa on debut in 1996 and four tries in his second Test, against the Scots. Scored 46 tries in 60 Tests

Berrick Barnes

Late replacement at No10 guided Wallabies to a 32-20 victory in Cardiff in the 2007 World Cup, despite physical intimidation from the Welsh. At 21, the Australian Cipriani. Martin Pengelly

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