The Gavin Henson lesson that won't be lost on Charlie Ewels when Danny Cipriani walks through the Bath door
England lock Charlie Ewels revisited an important past lesson he learned about Gavin Henson when asked on Thursday to talk about Danny Cipriani, the new Bath signing who will arrive with a bit of a reputation when he comes through the door at The Rec in May.
The 33-year-old Cipriani has been on a sabbatical from rugby since quitting Gloucester in mid-December, but he has now signed a one-year deal that will take him through until the end of the 2021/22 season at Bath. Ewels will be Cipriani’s skipper at the club and while the ex-England out-half comes with a multitude of unflattering opinions surrounding him, the Bath second row won’t pay any attention to the negativity.
The lesson to not judge people until you know them was something not lost on Ewels regarding the 2013/14 arrival of ex-Wales international Henson at Bath. As with Cipriani, Henson was coming with a colourful reputation that Ewels found could not have been further from the truth when he got to know the Welshman from working with him on a daily basis.
“You hear all these stories about players and whatnot and I heard a lot of stories about Gavin Henson before he showed up at the club. Then I met Gav and it completely changed my opinion,” explained Ewels.
“I said to myself I’ll only ever make my own opinions with people. What you hear about lads before you have met them, before you have seen what they do day to day as a pro, is very, very different. So I always form my own opinions of someone when I have been with them in the environment.”
"I want him to come here and be the absolute best version of himself within our team"
– 18 weeks after Danny Cipriani last played a match for Gloucester, Bath believe their new signing will be the real deal #PremRugby https://t.co/HFPh1F3Dnr
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 25, 2021
Ewels already has a brief experience of working with Cipriani as both were on the 2016 England Saxons tour to South Africa and a positive first impression was made. “On that tour, I was 21 but he was brilliant. He was good to me, I learned a lot from him on that tour. It was the first time I properly stepped outside the Bath environment and met lads and he had a different way of seeing the game and I learned a lot from him.
“Again, you can hear the stories, you can see the things that are written in the papers and stuff but until I have been with someone day in day out and worked with them, I won’t form my opinion of what I think of them until then and Danny is a good pro.
“The perception is that he loose and flamboyant but if you actually watch him, he finds all of his moments within the shape. You speak to lads who played with him on that tour, he is so rigorous on what lines you should run because he knows… he is so good at organising the forwards and organising the guys around him and then he will find his moments in that shape.
“I can tell you now, I can show you clips of lads who play loose.. and defences in this league are too good for someone to be off just doing their own thing. The guys that shine are the guys within the shape and within the attacking structures, they can see the space and then they have got the skill set to throw the option, but it would never be there if they didn’t organise the guys around them.
“We all love working with Rhys (Priestland). We want to push to the end of the season with Rhys, Orlando (Bailey) coming through and then Cips is the next coming in and will be the next step on that. He has got different skills from Rhys, he will have some new ideas around the attack. I went on that Saxons tour with him so I know a little bit of what he is about, I like how he attacks, I like how he sees things, I like how he puts detail on the attack… it will be exciting to work with him.”
RugbyPass Offload EP 22 with Jack Nowell ?
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Jack joins Zeebs, Christina & Jamie to discuss the crazy Six Nations weekend ?
We cover England rugby & Eddie Jones as well as our Lions XV on current form! ?
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— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 24, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
So spiteful that the Springboks won again, they just had to change the laws so that they would stand a chance.
36 Go to commentsWhy would Eben lie? The guy has achieved so much. He saw it as arrogance. Any normal person who plays against the ABs year in and year out would have the same thoughts. Why even talk about the final when you have the biggest game of your lives next week in a stage you have never gotten passed? Rugly is simple in SA. Have fun but the most important thing is respect. I’m not buying any of this misinterpreted nonsense. Eben isn’t English, but no one during that interview was asking what did he say? He's speaking and therefore his understanding is perfectly fine. It was an arrogant thing to say, esp for a team that has never been to a final, never mind a semi. You guys up north can interpret it in a different way if you wish, maybe that s why you don’t win the biggest tournaments.
151 Go to comments> with Sky TV in New Zealand saying it has seen an 11 per cent lift in overall viewership this year. It’s easy for these kiwi “journalists” to throw around meaningless numbers to make it seem that things are improving, but if you look at the stats behind this 11 percent it says that after 10 rounds of rugby there is only a paltry 160k cumulative viewers in total.. That is on average 16k viewers watching a single round of Super Rugby. I very much doubt any of the other numbers that Gregor so proudly “reports” on.
36 Go to commentsGoode is a Prop that played Flyhalf…. Who gives a Sh@#t what he thinks anyway!
151 Go to commentsOne would hope when a player of such caliber is approached for transfer is traversed a lot more carefully. The question I ask, “is the players agent raising red flags in the first instance of contact”. By what I read assumptions are made by nzr based on player welfare provided to them. So what is that? Is it a wholistic approach where family balance is taken into account. Because thay’s what’s in the mix when players go off shore. I realize the money is a huge factor but when negotiations are initiated is nzr involved. As Lendrum says having our best players available is paramount to our success So here’s hoping they are effectively communicating.
4 Go to commentsPSTD, I salute you.
6 Go to commentsWhy don't they just give up on scrums and lineouts, cut the number of players to 13, and call the game ‘rugby league’? These idiots are determined to destroy the game as we know it, and instead of ‘attracting youngsters to the game’ as Beaumont suggests, it’ll deter a lot of the less skilled, maybe overweight kids who it is perfect for. World Rugby is detestable. And as for the 20 minute ‘red’ - why not teach the players to tackle better? (Like the current tackle height trials are supposed to do, but will probably be squashed by the NZRU as usual). I despair for the union game, I really do.
36 Go to commentsHere’s hoping the emphasis on how the tmo interfaces on game infractions is taken into account more seriously than what was adjudicated during the 23 wc. That was a shambles, plus Barnes the abs ref never contested some of the calls, something he’s known for. And then we're left with wr opologizing after the game that smith’s try was legit. I was even more pizzed. And as for the red card if the infringement is clearly intentional foul then the individual is out of the game and after 20mins the bench replacement comes on. So, there’s then the degree of seriousness taken into account within the 20min stand down.
36 Go to commentsNot sure they the article doesn’t hit on TMO this year, that’s were they were putting focus right. The fact the other areas haven’t improved shows just how poor the comp is at focusing on its direction. There should still have been further gains in both those areas this year even it if didn’t have the same focus as others. The whistle to restart time, like touch finders of 26 seconds, surely has to be a key focus area next year. Why should a side be given so much time to kick for touch? Cut that down to 5 or 10 seconds, penalties both become less of key stalling/defensive strategy, and become more ‘live’ with tap kicks becoming much more favourable quick actions. Theres absolutely no reason we have to wait over 10 secs for the preferred kicker to walk up and try and take maximum advantage, especially when half the time its just a delay tactic to give the forwards time to plan, as the kicker hardly even trys to find the corner with his kick, anyone could have kicked it straight out for the lineout.
36 Go to commentsShame. Hope something else can be arranged.
3 Go to commentsTitans of under-20s rugby …. Reporters tired verbiage akin to calling every player a “star” and any Fijian side as ”Flying”. The French English and Irish are the Titans of U20 rugby. Noone in the South is now. This tournament is however, good prep to regain titan status.
1 Go to commentsWill be humbling coming back and playing second fiddle to Dmac.
4 Go to commentsSounds like quite a bit of development has occurred regarding Mo’unga’s situation. Either NZR has stepped up their offer (big time) or RMo has had a reality check on what it will be like to be outside of the high performance environment of AB rugby. Maybe both. It reads like there are only a few remaining details to be sorted out before it is a done deal.
4 Go to commentsCurrently, a prop that has been substituted can go back on field if his original replacement gets injured. Can a red carded prop go back if his replacement gets injured, or will it be uncontested scrums?
13 Go to commentsWhat about a free kick from a scrum? Can you call another scrum? Or are they just giving straight penalties now?
36 Go to commentsLoved that comment by Andrew that the ‘water boys’ rule was changed in 2020 just to stymie the Boks!
36 Go to commentsOne of the best the Boks have ever produced. PSDT has an engine that goes non-stop for the full 80 min.
6 Go to commentsThe real deal.
6 Go to commentsIt’s been said that Nienaber will head back to SA too before next World Cup , hoarding all the amazing IP gained in Irish system … get a grip … Irish system needs to Milk the likes of Barrett . First time a leading all Black in his prime has gone to Ireland for any period of time . Enjoy it .
22 Go to comments20 min RC is the only good solution of a bunch of bad solutions. Ridiculous that it has taken this long and caused so many uneven contests. In general these are all very good changes - one is surprised that NH brokers were able to see sense at long last.
13 Go to comments