WHEN the camera flash went off, Danny Cipriani must have thought: “You complete plonker.” The quote that best sums up the fix Cipriani got himself into is the same one that Lawrence Dallaglio used when he was caught in a News of the World honey trap: “I was young, stupid and naive.”

Cipriani appears to have bought into the Wasps’ line that he was treated harshly, but I totally disagree. I fully back England head coach Brian Ashton’s view to drop him because the new professional game has guidelines and, in his contract with both England and Wasps, there is a code of conduct that outlines how you handle yourself.

In the past, a lot of those guidelines were unwritten, but anybody with any nous knew where the lines were drawn. Whether he had a drink or not, he should not have been in a nightclub at midnight in the middle of the week a few days before the biggest match of his career. It is ridiculous, and to use the front door of the nightclub when he left was barking. He should have known by now that he is tabloid territory - especially after reports of his experience with a transsexual - and he needs to learn that most nightclubs have a back exit.

The stuff about dropping off tickets simply does not wash. Why his mates didn’t pick them up from him at home is beyond me. It’s not his job to trawl around London dropping off match tickets. He has been through the age-group ranks with England and should understand what is acceptable and what isn’t. Also, with Wasps famous for their short, intensive training sessions, he gets plenty of free time, so he knows enough about how to occupy it.

Nobody is bigger than the game and it would have been wrong to give him a light rap on the knuckles. Cipriani probably doesn’t realise the full consequences of this episode, but he should think about the way it has an impact not just on him but on everyone around him - his family, friends and teammates at England and Wasps.

He has become the talk of the town in a negative sense and has also lost the chance for his first start in an England shirt. If he gets photographed in a lad-about-town way during the next 10 years he can rest assured that it will all be raked up again and he will get the sort of reputation that no young sportsman wants.

He must never put himself in that situation again unless he wants a millstone round his neck. He needs to be in the papers for what he does on the rugby field, not off it.

It is unfortunate that he didn’t have any mentors to guide him last week. When I broke into the England side, I was immediately drawn to the forwards because they were the guys with all the stories, they protected you and, if you had too much to drink, carried you home. That was in the amateur era, when we all had day jobs, but even then you knew it paid to be discreet and have a couple of “safe houses” if you wanted a postmatch drink.

Wasps’ attempt to play this down smacks of supporting their player too far. The only explanation for playing Cipriani today against Harlequins is if they are desperately short of players - or they are happy with their young players being in nightclubs a few days before big matches.

Yet this could be a great lesson. The hardest thing for him, just as it was for me, is that temptation will always be there. I loved my social life and would grasp every chance to go out that I could, but sometimes you have to go against those instincts and knuckle down for the sake of your career.

Cipriani needs to remember the old line that it’s easy to get there, but harder to stay there. His mates will tell him that he’s a jack-the-lad and that everything is okay, but it isn’t - and he needs to put it right.

I had my ups and downs, and my advice is that he should take the stick he gets from everyone and turn to the people he knows best, the ones he trusts. He needs to turn the setback into a positive and realise that he cannot just do as he pleases. These are growing pains, but he cannot afford any more just now.

The rap over the knuckles will be just that, Ashton will not bear a grudge and, unless there is a good reason on form not to select him, Cipriani will be back in the England reckoning soon enough. It is, however, time he wised up.

Jeremy Guscott won 65 caps for England between 1989 and 1999