Dropping of Cipriani from the Scotland v. England Match on Sat 8 March rugby union betting buffs might have reacted with dismay to hear that Danny Cipriani, the Wasps fly-half was sensationally dropped from the England team for their match with Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday. Cipriani had been photographed leaving a London Nightclub in the early hours of Thursday morning, a clear breach of the rules for the team prior to a major game.

Arguably, the expulsion weakened the team and caused a dip in team morale which may have had some bearing on the woeful result with England losing 15-9 to a side widely predicted to be a contender for the wooden spoon prior to the series. On the face of it, a major error on the part of coach and manager Brian Ashton, as former coach, Sir Clive Woodward, former captain, Laurence Dallaglio and others have been quick to claim.

The bigger picture, though, may reveal that Ashton’s drastic action is exactly what English team sport needs if it is to wake up and be able to meet the challenges posed by world-class teams which train and perform in a different world to our own. On Saturday, the England Rugby team buckled under the onslaught of the Scots, on Sunday the England Test cricket team crashed to ignominious defeat in New Zealand. In the last West Indies test series, drunken loutishness was evident among some team members.

The online betting fan is tired of seeing his team capitulate at the first sign of serious demand on talent and preparation. Fed up with seeing overweight bowlers trundling down the wicket in the blazing heat, under-practiced fielders going through a random phase of dropping the ball at every opportunity or first-order batsmen succumbing to a lazy stroke, then blaming the pitch while the number 10 bat gets 45 runs.

It’s got to end somewhere down the line and perhaps Ashton’s action in imposing boundaries and sticking to them is the sort of measure which brings short term problems but, in the end will, at last, bring long-term gains.