Steve Black’s pride is palpable. Danny Cipriani has just been handed his first England start for a decade against South Africa and the man he calls his “Super Dad” is beaming. “Danny has just stuck in there,” Black says. “He hasn’t become a broken man, he’s kept playing at the best of his ability and eventually he’s become irresistible.”
Black, who worked with Jonny Wilkinson for nearly 20 years, has been fulfilling the same mentoring role with Cipriani since 2013. A former nightclub bouncer, now a professor of practice at Newcastle University Business School, he speaks to the returning England fly-half on an almost daily basis. He provides Cipriani with “a better view of life”, bringing clarity to a once cluttered mind, focus where previously there were too many distractions, contentment when before there was restlessness.
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“All I ever say to him is that all he can control is his personal standards,” Black says. “Behaviour can be infectious and contagious so I want his to be superb. He’s a fountain of energy and it’s important people see that about him.”
Cipriani makes his fifth England start on Saturday – when he produced one of the most complete fly-half performances in living memory on his debut against Ireland in 2008, aged 20, he was destined for a truckload more. At first injury struck and more front-page headlines than back gave rise to a reputation that has been hard to shake. “We’ve worked very hard at that, day by day, week by week, to say, we really know who you are, your character is there, we know what it is,” Black says. “Sometimes these things don’t come to the forefront of people’s minds enough but he won community player of the year at Wasps, he visits hospitals and schools – he’s got a good heart. Sometimes in life we’re very good at helping other people and not great at letting other people help us. Danny has discovered that. He’s a great natural helper of other people but now he’s quite happy for other people to help him.”
As proud as Black is that Cipriani has won his place back in the England side, he is equally pleased at how Eddie Jones’s perception has changed. It got to the stage where Martin Johnson seemed more likely to pick himself at fly-half than Cipriani while Stuart Lancaster was largely reluctant and overlooked him for the 2015 World Cup squad despite a fine cameo against France shortly beforehand.
At first Jones was equally distrusting. “I’m sure Eddie can appreciate the effect Danny has on the mentality and the creativity of the squad,” Black says. “Contrary to some people’s belief, he’s a superb team man because he realises that as the star quarterback, if he’s not a great team man it will not work. You have to be quite unselfish in that position to bring out the best in others around you.”
Black extols the virtues of kaizen, a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement and as such, he does not see wasted talent or underachievement in Cipriani, rather someone who is still to reach their peak. “He’s a better player than he’s ever been but there’s no reason he can’t be getting better and better. Remember what I used to say about Jonny, right at the start, I used to say he’ll reach his best when he was 34 to 35 and judging by how he played at Toulon I would suggest he did. Danny certainly hasn’t got to his best yet. I would expect him reaching his best, and we’ve spoken about this a lot, in maybe three or four years’ time.”
Saturday represents the chance to stake a claim for a place in next year’s World Cup squad – the driving force behind Cipriani’s decision to snub lucrative offers to play abroad during his long spell in the international wilderness. “He’s patriotic, he’s very proud to represent his country,” Black says. “Even though he wasn’t given a chance in the 2015 World Cup, the dream never left him.”
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While effusive in his praise for Black after his recall had been confirmed, Cipriani also stated he plans to be the “calmest man in the room” at Newlands. Where once he may have tried too hard to make things happen, Black expects to see a fly-half at ease with the task in hand. “He’ll not force it too much and if he does it’ll be a calculated risk once in a while. Great players make decisions and execute them well and if he were to ever step out of structured plans now, it would be to win or save the game. He sees things lots of other people don’t see but he can now mould that to what other people can see which is very special.”
It is hard to escape the sense that Cipriani is the people’s choice as England fly-half. His unmistakable talent and the Prodigal Son narrative make for an irresistible combination – no bad thing according to Black. “He’s the type of lad who doesn’t mind being loved, it helps him enormously. Some people say they don’t need encouragement but I think we all need it really.”