Hard-hitting Mallett hopeful of catching England off guard
Italy coach Nick Mallett admits he tried to poach Danny Cipriani for the Azzurri in an interview with Robert Kitson in The Guardian.
"The 52-year-old former Springbok No8 will tell you straight and also reveal how Italy tried to poach Danny Cipriani a couple of years ago. "I wish we could have got him for Italy. He was only 19 but, with a name like that, he was one guy we wanted to contact. Our manager, Carlo Checchinato, phoned him. Danny appreciated the call but said he'd come through the English system and playing for England was a bigger challenge for him."
"It is still only 9.10am in a quiet room at the Hurlingham Club in London, yet the irrepressible Mallett is already building up a head of steam. This is the man who once slogged Ian Botham around the Parks while playing for Oxford University, even if close scrutiny of the 1981 edition of Wisden suggests the story of him hitting the England all-rounder for three sixes in the same over has been exaggerated. "Botham keeps getting angry about this. He says it certainly wasn't three sixes in one over. I did manage to hit a few runs off him but he was bowling off-spin until he got very angry and bowled a bouncer off a short run. He bloody nearly killed his wicketkeeper who was standing up." The story also goes that some Springbok players once slipped sleeping tablets into his morning coffee to slow down their resident force of nature; apart from the odd yawn in mid-afternoon, the pills had no obvious effect."
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