Gloucester fly-half Danny Cipriani was today named Gallagher Premiership Rugby Player of the Month for September 2018.

Cipriani has been in stellar form for Gloucester as they picked up two wins in their first four matches to establish themselves in the Gallagher Premiership Rugby top six.

And his head coach Johan Ackermann said: “Credit to Danny, when he joined us there was a lot of pressure on him from changing clubs and everything, but he has slotted in really well both on the field and off the field.

“On the field it was quite evident that we could see his skill from the first training session. He has got a big belief in his ability in how we can play and he is not shy to try things. I think that suits us, we want to give players that freedom and he has slotted in really well on that.

“It fits quite well because we want our teams to be dominant, we want our teams to be involved between us and the players that want a lot of interaction.”

Cipriani was presented with his award by Dave Balmer, stadium manager at Kingsholm and a Gallagher Community Hero for Gloucester Rugby Club.

As the new title partner of Premiership Rugby, Gallagher asked each Premiership club to nominate two people who they feel best demonstrate their rugby family, resulting in 24 Gallagher Community Heroes, such as Dave Balmer, who embody the values and spirit of rugby.

Throughout the season, Gallagher will embark on a series of CSR initiatives as part of its ongoing commitment to rugby, working with Premiership Rugby to shine a light on the positive work that is being done around the game, both at scale and within the local communities.

And the first of these is to award Cipriani – as part of his prize for being named Gallagher Premiership Rugby Player of the Month – with 25 tickets to a future Gloucester Rugby match to be gifted to a local club, school or community group.

Cipriani was judged by a panel of experts as the player who made the biggest impact in Gallagher Premiership Rugby over the month September.

He was involved in a three-way battle to win the award eventually beating Exeter Chiefs’ duo Sam Simmonds and Henry Slade to the title.

And Ackermann added: “Danny has that ability to come in and ask questions, share ideas, and I think the players can see that he’s a guy that studies the game and has a very good attention to detail.

“It suits us because as much as we want to play with freedom. The better detail you have, the better for the performance.

“It’s early days, we don’t want to put extra pressure on him, but he must stick to his process, and stick to his game.

“We as a team have still got a lot of improvement to assist him, but it’s early days and it’s up to the team to help Danny.

“The main thing is for him to enjoy being at Gloucester and as a team we keep trying really hard to hopefully help his game as well.

“We are delighted to see a Gloucester Rugby player winning the inaugural Gallagher Premiership Rugby Player of the Month and it’s great to see the new title partner so committed to recognising high performance on the pitch whilst actively supporting local clubs and schools in the local community to get engaged with rugby.”

Cipriani was voted for by a panel of media professionals based on his performances in September, alongside a public poll which drew 1,200 votes.