"Holding rugby back" - Danny Cipriani slams 'backwards thinking' Eddie Jones

The Bath fly-half was on the money with his assessment of rugby's problem, and he rightfully highlighted the hypocrisy of the England bosses recent comments.

"Jones is worried about Marcus Smith being distracted by fame and praise, but that’s the sort of old-school mentality that is holding rugby back," wrote Cipriani in his fantastic column for the Mail Online.

"There should be an attempt to raise the profile and popularity of the game because it hasn’t really progressed that much in the past decade. At one point it was the No 2 sport in the country, but others have promoted themselves better.

"Other sports have created superstars — and are very proactive in doing so — but rugby has never done that. The game is almost failing in that way, because of outdated attitudes towards any individual who receives attention.

"This backward mind-set is unique to rugby. Everything in the game has moved forward except the commercialisation and promotion of it.

"When you look online, you realise that Jones does plenty of commercial stuff. I was looking on Twitter and saw pictures of him kissing a crab in some advert!"

Read Cipriani's full column by CLICKING HERE.

Yes, he has a cap – only a fleeting one, as a late replacement for Mark Cueto against Australia in 2005 – but he does boast a 100% winning ratio in international colours, so you can’t knock that.

His main strengths were dropping the high ball under limited pressure and getting gassed on the outside.

He became the first player to represent Great Britain in Rugby League and England in Union. His move to union was part funded by the RFU, who were embarking on a strategy of converting some of leagues best talent.

However, Mather struggled to make an impact with Sale and moved back to Castleford in 2000. In spite of his poor form with Sale, Clive Woodward gave Mather his debut against Wales in the famous Grand Slam decider in 1999. However, Mather never played for England again after Wales won the game 32-31, following Scott Gibbs’ superb try.

Tomkins began his League career with Wigan in 2005 and outside of a short stint with the Widnes Vikings in 2007, played with the Warriors until moving to Saracens in 2011.

While Tomkins initially struggled to adapt to union, but his form during the beginning of the 2013/14 season saw him earn an England cap against Australia in November 2013. Although he went on to make two further international appearances, he looked completely out of his depth and returned to league soon after.

England, who fast-tracked Burgess into their World Cup squad in defiance of logic, Bath and the player himself each shoulder varying degrees of blame for arguably the greatest cross-code flop in history. We're not saying he was an awful player, but the whole thing was a complete disaster.

The Volcano’ stormed onto the scene for Gloucester, doing something ridiculous like scoring five tries on his debut against Leeds, before qualifying for England on residency grounds. International honours followed, with Vainikolo making his England debut against Wales in 2008. However, he failed to bring his try-scoring form to the international scene and was quickly dropped from Martin Johnston’s squad after winning five caps.

Fly-half Geraghty made his England debut as a replacement against France in the 2007 Six Nations - carving through the French defence to create a crucial try for teammate Mike Tindall and kicking a penalty and a conversion in the 26-18 Twickenham triumph. However, the fact he has fallen into obscurity since, which makes this more of a disappointed selection rather than down to poor performances.

Much was made of the fact that Shaun Perry was an ex-welder when he burst into the limelight during an impressive season with Bristol, and it did make a charming rags-to-riches story.  But, let’s be honest, he never really looked accomplished in the England shirt. A poor performance against South Africa in the 2007 Rugby World Cup led to Perry being dropped from the 22 by England coach Brian Ashton. He never played again.

The Bristol prop was a solid bloke who anchored the Bristol scrum during that season where they finished 3^rd in the Premiership, in 2006-07, and was rewarded with a call-up to the England squad for their tour to South Africa. However, Crompton was never the most mobile and since he was 34 when he made his bow in international colours, he was practically stationary by the time he put on the England shirt.

Despite the good early promise in his career, he spent most of his time in England colours being turned upside down in the set-piece and being battered backwards in contact.

He packed a punch in the tackle but never really looked comfortable at Test level.

Now Deacon was as tough as nails, but was about as mobile and athletic as the very comfy sofa that I’m currently sat on and offered next to no threat to opponents. Unfortunately, he falls into that category of England players whose best quality was ‘being brave’, which fills you with admiration...but not a whole lot of confidence.

Winters is by all accounts a Bristol legend and an all-around good egg. He was usually a lock but made his international debut on the flank, so that’s where he fits in – and he’s selected for many of the same reasons as his old club-mate Darren Crompton.  Solid bloke, yes, but international quality?  Not by a long shot.

Gloucester stalwart Hazell had the unenviable task of filling the retired Neil Back’s shoes.  We can assume that Robinson’s thought process was, “He’s small, he’s aggressive, he’s just like Neil Back”, but unfortunately it didn’t really work out like that.  Making his international appearances exclusively through 2004-05, Hazell became known as a bit of a penalty machine.

Skirving travelled to South Africa to take the place of the injured Peter Buxton in the full England squad for their two-test series against the Springboks. The back-rower was not involved in the first test, but won his first England cap starting the second test on 2 June 2007, starting in a comprehensive 55-22 defeat.