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Australia’s Adam Ashley-Cooper unfazed by Cipriani comments ahead of England game

Nick Purewal

03:50 03/10/2015

Adam Ashley-Cooper has hit back at Danny Cipriani’s claim that not a single Australian would be good enough for England’s team by ridiculing the fly-half’s vanity.

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Cipriani invited attention on to Stuart Lancaster’s men on the eve of their critical showdown with the Wallabies, a match that will determine whether the hosts survive in their own World Cup.

“Not one Australian would get into that England team right now,” said Cipriani, who was part of Lancaster’s training squad for the tournament before being jettisoned at the final round of cuts.

Ashley-Cooper, who starts on the right wing at Twickenham, has reacted by declaring Cipriani would not be considered by the Wallabies.

“It’s just nice that Danny is talking about someone other than himself,” Ashley-Cooper said.

“He’s a good bloke and I enjoy his selfies a lot. He can say what he likes, he wouldn’t ever be a part of our team.”

Australia have also come under fire from England’s World Cup-winning mastermind Sir Clive Woodward, who insisted they are “not the brightest team”.

Wallaby coach Michael Cheika laughed off the barb. “Mr Woodward’s right. I only got 300 out of 500 in my high school certificate,”

Cheika said. “My mother wasn’t happy with the results either, I can assure you. She begged me to study harder and somehow I got through, I don’t know how. Fluked it, I suppose.

“Sometimes it’s not intelligence but emotional intelligence that helps in this game. It’s not the IQ, it’s the EQ. So hopefully we’ve got a bit of EQ amongst us.

“We’re doing our best for our country. I understand it’s all a bit of fun and games, a bit of a snipe here and a snipe there, so I’m pretty comfortable with all that stuff.”

Australia conducted their captain’s run at Twickenham to the sound of ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ playing on the stadium speakers.

“I’m not sure how the song came about. One of the coaches, Stephen Larkham, who’s a slightly random type of fellow, just decided to turn it on at training one day earlier this week,” Cheika said.

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