Cipriani targets England spot

Danny Cipriani
30 April 2012

A desire to prepare for the next Aviva Premiership season and regain a place in the England side has led to Danny Cipriani securing an early release from his contract with the Melbourne Rebels.

The fly-half is currently midway through the Victoria club's Super Rugby campaign, but is to return to his homeland ahead of schedule to link up with new club Sale.

"I want to thank the club (Rebels) for being so understanding with my wishes and granting me a release to return to England," said Cipriani. "I've made no secret of my desire to play for England again and I believe leaving now will give me the best opportunity to do that."

He added: "I feel I have developed my game in my time in Australia and become a more complete player. I wish the Rebels every success in the future and should the opportunity ever arise again I would not hesitate to return."

Cipriani has spent two years with the Rebels, scoring a club-record 122 points in the process.

His time has not been without incident, though, with him being stood down for a month last season following a breach of club discipline.

But despite that, Melbourne have wished him well.

"Danny goes with our blessing and we thank him for his contribution to our club during his time here," said chief executive Steve Boland.

"Essentially the time is right for both parties to part company, the decision is amicable and we wish him all the best for the future."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in