Cipriani to continue quest for selection

DANNY CIPRIANI will continue his quest to regain the England out-half jersey with Wasps this weekend after being included among 17 players Martin Johnson has made available for club duty.

The 21-year-old did not feature in England’s opening two RBS Six Nations games because Johnson felt he was still short of both form and match sharpness following last year’s gruesome ankle break.

Cipriani staked a claim for a recall to face Ireland by leading Wasps to victory over Leicester last weekend with a 21-point haul – and he is set to get another opportunity against Northampton on Sunday.

Wasps also have Simon Shaw and Tim Payne back for the Adams Park clash. England’s incumbent out-half Andy Goode is the only member of the starting XV beaten by Wales last weekend to return to his club.

Goode is not covered by England’s elite player agreement because he is based in Brive, the club who this week announced the signing of Riki Flutey.

London Irish will be strengthened for their trip to Bath by Shane Geraghty, who was kept back by England last weekend as injury cover, flanker Steffon Armitage and scrum-half Paul Hodgson.

The remaining members of the England squad will remain in camp until today. All the players will reconvene on Sunday evening to prepare for the Ireland match at Croke Park.

Meanwhile France coach Marc Lievremont has criticised the Six Nations schedule that will force his side to host Wales on Friday week, directly after a weekend of French championship games.

“First, I don’t like evening games, Six Nations games should be played at 1500 on Saturday afternoon,” he moaned.

Lievremont added that playing in the evening was “bad for the players”.

“There is a long wait during the day, they lose a lot of energy, they are stressed and in February the weather conditions are far from perfect,” he protested. Lievremont also lamented that playing on a Friday evening after a Top 14 weekend had left him with limited options for the selection and forced changes in his usual training schedule.

“Even if we had wanted to, it would have been difficult to make changes and to introduce new players to the squad with only four days of training before the game,” he said.

“The Toulouse and Clermont players (who meet on Sunday in a rematch of the 2008 final) will not set foot on the training pitch before Tuesday afternoon and it will have to be a light session.

“They represent nine members of the squad.

“We’ll only be able to have a proper session on Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon will be off, Friday will be devoted to the captain’s run and that will be it.”

Sylvain Marconnet has been recalled by France for the match against Wales. The experienced Stade Francais prop, who has 71 caps, last played for Les Bleus in February 2007 but has struggled with injuries over the past couple of years.

With props Benoit Lecouls (neck) and Nicolas Mas (adductor) out injured, Marconnet has been called up by Lievremont while fellow front-row forward Thomas Domingo is also included ahead of Renaud Boyoud, who drops out of the squad.

With Florian Fritz banned, Maxime Mermoz remains in the squad as one of three centres.

Italy will be boosted by the return of lock Marco Bortolami and centre Andrea Marcato for their game against Scotland in Edinburgh.

Both players missed last Sunday’s 38-9 defeat to Ireland in Rome through injury but have recovered and have been included in Mallett’s 24-man squad.

Backs: C Poitrenaud (Toulouse), J Malzieu (Clermont-Auvergne), M Medard, Cedric Heymans (both Toulouse), M Mermoz (Perpignan), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), B Baby (Clermont-Auvergne), L Beauxis (Stade Francais), M Parra (Bourgoin), S Tillous-Borde (Castres).

Forwards: F Barcella (Biarritz), L Faure (Sale), T Domingo (Clermont-Auvergne), S Marconnet (Stade Francais), B Kayser (Leicester), D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), S Chabal (Sale), R Millo-Chluski (Toulouse), L Nallet (Castres, capt), T Dusautoir (Toulouse), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz), F Ouedraogo, L Picamoles (both Montpellier).