Mistrust of outsiders and a woeful mismanagement of talent shows why England are set up to fail at the upcoming Rugby World Cup
in August 2022, expressed his frustration with the lack of talented backs and argued that England had “to blow up” the system in order to break the talent bar.
That was interpreted as an attack on the public school system, when in fact it was a moan about the non-existent exposure to rugby in state schools and the consequent lack of informal rugby played casually by kids in outdoor spaces, a feature of cultural life that breeds the kind of skilful backs common among Southern Hemisphere nations.
As a mixed-race kid from an estate in Putney, Cipriani followed the established route taken by talented players from outside the public school system. He was co-opted. Cipriani played football and cricket to a high standard. Those basic motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination, etc, developed in kickabouts on the estate were easily transferable to rugby.
As a teenager he might easily have accepted overtures from QPR and Surrey CCC but was co-opted into the public school system, accepting rugby scholarships first at The Oratory in Reading and then the Whitgift in Croydon, a popular route for working-class kids dreaming of professional rugby and cricket careers.The Jones argument, supported by Cipriani’s testimony, points to a kind of groupthink born of the lack of diversity in a public school system that churns out a particular kind of player.
Cipriani’s appreciation of rugby, his intuitive feel for the game, was acquired in the 10,000 hours he spent outside with his mates before the formal stuff started. Those whose first exposure to rugby was on a playing field at Eton, Harrow, Westminster, Millfield, etc, become expert in the formal structures but are not encouraged to think outside those paradigms. The system neither encourages nor trusts difference. The game did not come to Cipriani like this.
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