England manager Martin Johnson believes Danny Cipriani still has the hunger to play international rugby.

Will Carling revealed on Friday he had scrapped plans to manage Cipriani after concluding the 22-year-old lacked the drive to reclaim the England fly-half jersey.

Cipriani has not played for England in 15 months and Carling had wanted to help get his international career "back on track".

But after spending six weeks talking to Cipriani, Carling was left with the firm belief that he is not passionate enough about playing for England.

Johnson, who told Carling during the process that he had not closed the door on Cipriani's international career, said: "I think Danny wants to play for England. He tells me he wants to play for England.

"I spoke to Will, he told me what he was trying to do and he has since told me he is not doing it any more.

"If in the opinion of Will he doesn't have the focus he deems necessary, that is strictly Will's opinion."

Cipriani's last cap was off the bench against New Zealand in 2008, since when his representative rugby has been limited to the second-string Saxons.

Cipriani has fallen behind Jonny Wilkinson, Toby Flood and Shane Geraghty in the fly-half pecking order and he was forced to play at full-back for the Saxons against Italy A last weekend.

Carling also consulted Wasps head coach Shaun Edwards, Josh Lewsey and Matt Dawson and the consensus of opinion was that Cipriani is a "great talent" but with an "ability to alienate team-mates".

Carling said: "The reason the whole concept appealed to me was that I believed here was a guy with a special talent, who desperately wanted to play for England and maybe I could help him.

"I have spent the last six weeks trying to focus Danny and without laying the blame at anyone's door, the main reason that I have decided not to go ahead is that I do not believe that Danny's focus is on playing for England.

"That and that alone was my main motivation for getting involved with him. It is not about money and certainly not about profile, it was about helping him earn the England number 10 shirt.

"And, rightly or wrongly, I have concluded that his desire to earn that shirt is not as strong as I want it to be and as strong as it needs to be.

"I sincerely hope that it is not a talent that is never fulfilled in an England shirt, but I worry that might be the case, and I just hope that sometime soon Danny focuses on England and the hard work that will be necessary to earn his place in the team."

Cipriani's Wasps contract expires in the summer and he has been linked with moves to the new Super 15 franchise Melbourne Rebels and to the French Top 14.

Wasps will announce in the coming week whether Cipriani features in their plans for next season.