Danny Cipriani’s high profile for the right reasons says Steve Diamond

Sale boss Steve Diamond says he will hold contract talks with star fly-half Danny Cipriani at the end of next month.
Cipriani is in the final year of a three-year deal at the Sharks and has been linked with a move to former club Wasps and Harlequins.
The 26-year-old has played some of the best rugby of his career in the last 12 months at Sale and is back in the England set-up as a result.
“We'll be sitting down with Danny and the other out of contract players (around a dozen) once we get past the first European games,” Diamond said.
“Danny's spoken publicly about how much he's enjoyed it here but he's also talked about how we've got to show a bit of ambition in our signings and I tend to agree with him.
“I think we've recruited well this year and now we've got to show our intent over the next two to three months on our recruitment policy for next season.
“We will endeavour to bring two or three top class players to join the existing gang.
“That process has started already. It starts with a spreadsheet and seeing how much you're going to spend. Then you look at who you have got, who is already in contract and where you can do good deals.”
Diamond, below, admits Cipriani is a key figure in Sale's bid to become successful both on and off the pitch.
“To build an audience and get people in who are not rugby fans you need people like Danny Cipriani,” Diamond said.
“He's high profile but he's high profile for the right reasons. A lot of that is down to himself; he knows what we are about and he is a phenomenal player who understands the game probably more than me.”
With Cipriani, right, on song and developing a good partnership with Scotland international Chris Cusiter, Sale have scored 15 tries in their first four games. It took eight league games to achieve the same return last season.
“I think it is a reflection of Danny Cipriani quite a lot of the time,” Diamond stated. “Against Gloucester he made most of our tries and that's what you get with having half backs like him and Cusiter.
“They get on and have formed a good combination there. We knew Chris was a top class player and he has been a really good replacement for Dwayne Peel.
“If you look at last year I think we were fifth in attack in the competition, the only ones above us were the top four so we're just building on that.”
JON NEWCOMBE