sport news DANNY CIPRIANI MEETS JAMES O'CONNOR: Old mates talk Melbourne Rebels, the ... trends now
A decade ago, Danny Cipriani was playing for Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby, where he teamed up with James O’Connor and Kurtley Beale in a potent back line.
O’Connor is now in the Australia squad as they take on England.
Here, Sportsmail’s Cipriani and his long-time friend reflect on their highs and lows, and the series ahead…
Danny Cipriani: James, when we played together for the Rebels, you were this young, fiery whipper-snapper who could beat anyone. You were at 12 saying, ‘Just give me the f***ing ball early’. I was thinking, ‘What is this guy on about!’ What are your favourite memories of our time at the Rebels?
James O’Connor (above) and Danny Cipriani enjoy a close bond from their Melbourne days
James O’Connor: When we all first connected, we went to the beach that day and we were fans of Miami Heat. We had that photo — the Big Three. Oh, we copped it after that!
DC: I loved that. Just to explain — at the time, LeBron (James) had just gone back to Miami and they were talking about the Big Three because they had LeBron, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. We were these young, talented kids and we felt like we had that same authority, so we called ourselves the Big Three.
JO: That seems like a couple of lifetimes ago. I remember coming home one day, looking in my spare room and you’d moved in!
DC: That was only at weekends. In the week I had to go back home and recover!
JO: A lot of the way we played then was ego-driven, like me asking for the ball early. That was me saying, ‘Let me have MY turn. I want to be the one in the sun’. We didn’t quite get it together on the field and a big part of that was because of what was happening off it. We were still kids.
The 31-year-old fly-half is now in the Australia squad as they take on England this month
DC: There was a connection between us and seeing the growth in you and myself since then — that’s the sort of thing we’ll toast in years to come. We’ll look back and laugh at what we did.
JO: I do look back and laugh. Would I change things, with the mindset I have now? Of course. But back then, we had a good time together.
It was all up and down because that’s how our lives were. Our lives were all out on the big stage with so many eyes on us and that’s probably why we became close as at times it was overwhelming.
O’Connor returned home to Queensland in 2019 before the Rugby World Cup in Japan
We helped each other and I look back with fondness. We were both in a bit of depression at the same time, both on journeys and having awakenings. Because we came to the game at the same age, we were. We made poor decisions and tried to learn as we went. You have always been there for me.
DC: I remember when you were at Irish and I went to your house in Richmond. There were things we were doing which were adding to that depression and we probably weren’t a great influence on each other. But, we wanted to fight out of it and the conversations we were having were leading us that way, we just didn’t know how to piece it all together.
So when I saw you go back and play for Australia, you felt like a brother to me, I’m not going to say I’m proud — because who am I to say that? — but I respect the hell out of you for what you’ve done.
I hope you get to play in this series and it should be good, but England have won the last eight against Australia. How much do you have that record in mind?
JO: That’s the first I’ve heard of it! In the last series
