RFU confirm incident between Danny Cipriani, Mike Catt

The crisis enveloping England’s rugby team deepened on Wednesday as they admitted there had been a “robust conversation” between skills coach Mike Catt and fly-half Danny Cipriani before the tournament. That particular incident I saw.

“From my point of view, I will have to sit back and see how it unfolds”.

“Danny and Mike were involved in a robust conversation on the training pitch following a misunderstanding around a training drill instruction”, said a Rugby Football Union spokesman. “It’s no problem. Things like that happen occasionally with so many players in the camp, but it’s a non-story for me”.

“For me, playing for England is still my dream”.

Cipriani wrote in the Sun newspaper that he has “a good working relationship” with Catt after the pair spoke the day after the incident, and Lancaster praised the 27-year-old’s maturity.

Lock Joe Launchbury said: “We have to come out on the weekend and wear the white shirt with pride and put in a good performance”.

England crashed out of the World Cup with a 33-13 defeat to Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.

“Sale Sharks are now my priority along with getting stuck into the season. The whole objective of them is to get better”.

Apart from the stand-off between Cipriani and Catt, they have been forced to diffuse a Twitter row between James Haskell and 2003 World Cup victor Neil Back that started over a selfie stick.

“I’ll assume we’ll hear something within the next 24 hours”.

“Bath used him quite creatively – off six and five-man line-outs stood in the centres as a ball carrier”, added Lancaster.