England flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson will not be cited for a tackle that floored Jonathan Thomas and led to the flanker leaving the pitch in Saturday’s Six Nations defeat by Wales.
Wilkinson, who denied making the challenge, appeared to catch the flanker’s head in the 13th minute of the match but Wales made no protest and the BBC reported that he would face no action.
“There has been speculation that it was my tackle that led to it. I feel that it was not my tackle and I would add that it is always very sad to see a player going off injured,” Wilkinson wrote in his column in Monday’s Times newspaper.
“I stand firmly against foul play in the game. It has never been my desire or intention to be involved in anything like that and neither will it ever be.”
The 26-19 defeat was one of Wilkinson’s more forgettable international performances and he did not try to dodge the criticism.
“I would be on another planet if I wasn’t aware of a little of the post-match talk,” he said.
“When you are playing at flyhalf, you are obviously in the spotlight. If you help to make things happen and they go well, you get a lot of credit and if they don’t, you take the heat. I never bought into the credit, I’ve always said a rugby victory is a 15-man victory and it’s a 15-man game when we lose, as well.
“That’s not to say that I shirk responsibility. I know I was involved in some passages of play on Saturday which I wish I had executed differently. Early on, I thought I directed the game quite well, but in the second half, I did a couple of things which put us under more pressure rather than less.
“The idea was right, but the execution wasn’t. The problem we had was that these mistakes snowballed.”
Wilkinson handed Danny Cipriani, his flyhalf understudy, an unwelcome start to his international career when he lofted a poor pass to the debutant for his first touch after coming on as a replacement.
The subsequent chaos led to Wales’s first try as they set about their remarkable comeback victory, their first at Twickenham for 20 years.
“Danny Cipriani had just come on, he has two great feet and he had more space and time than I did,” Wilkinson said.
“Outside him was Paul Sackey and, between the two of them, I thought maybe we could have had a mismatch out wide.
“As I saw it, it was a no-lose decision. Wales were flying up on me, but not outside, where Danny and Sacks were. I saw that the Welsh were moving up on me so quickly, I thought I needed to get the ball away quicker and that’s why I misjudged the weight of the pass.
“Wrong execution, but the decision? These are decisions you make throughout a game. We’re in that England team because week in, week out you are making those decisions productively and positively.”
England face Italy on Sunday but will be without centre Mike Tindall, who is out for the whole tournament, winger David Strettle and flankers Tom Rees and Lewis Moody, all of whom suffered injuries on Saturday.
Coach Brian Ashton is due to name his team on Tuesday.
doubledummyscissors
Guest
Stuffhappens you're right - even the great players get older but for a good amount of time (I'd imagine JW has 2/3 more years only bearing in mind the tole injuries must have taken on him) what he'll lack in pace, he'll make up for in composure/experience and continue to win matches for his team. Surely the one blindingly obvious the last wc should have taught us is you win nothing with kids - the paucity of barnes in the qf was masked by our various other shortcomings... And Spiro, what is happening - Stooping to the level of quoting campo as to reinforce a point?? I dispair!
stuffhappens
Guest
What this game showed was that Jonny is not as fast or sure as he was.In his heyday he was an really good passer of the ball and a dynamite tackler. But, even great players get older ! Welcome to life!
Chariot
Guest
If I had never watched England play rugby I would, based on the comments above, assume JW had played twice and on each occasion thrown a bad pass. He may not be the same as Larkham or Carter or Spencer or Mehrtens but you don’t get to score 996 international points by being 'ok' or a 'bit average'. He, and England, built a style and experience off what works for them. To say England back have not scored tries with Wilkinson playing is fatuous. To say he has played differently to other fly halfs of his generation is obvious. He plays the game the way he knows and as a supporter of England I am happier with one World Cup win and a runner up position than I would be with an ‘also ran’ tag that, to date, the world’s best carry with them. I don’t believe that JW is the future for England but he is the present. In time DC, TF, RL, SG or another English fly-half will take over, will they be better? I hope so and the rest of the world hopes not.
swifty
Guest
Easy Counterruck, Wilko might pass heaps but with nowhere near the accuracy of the majority of his contemporaries. You can get away with bad passes when you are on the front foot. When your forwards are going backwards its a lot harder and its not something wilko is used to. I think its a fair observation that Wilko is a limited fly half. Great in some aspects, pretty average in others. I doubt if he had been born in either Australia or New Zealand that he would have made it to the international arena simply because those two countries put more importance on the aspects of the game that Wilko struggles with.
counterruck
Guest
As always spot on Spiro. In the 10 years he's been playing JW has rarely experienced passing under pressure. Actually now that I think back I can only think of him passing twice. This last week-end and that intercepted pass in the second Lions test at the Telstra Dome. Or maybe, just maybe he made a mistake. No one is saying there aren't may more talented fly-halves with ball in hand, but to claim he passes so rarely that he is incapable of passing a ball under pressure, just so that you can keep banging your boring poms line is stretching my credulity and respect.
Ian Noble
Guest
Unfortunately JW, Gomersall and others represent the old guard, those who started their careers in the amateur era. The new guard of Cipriani, Haskell, Strettle, Tait, et al have only known the professional era, and have been brought up in an environment playing with and against many foreign imports, whose impact in terms of commitment, knowledge and experience can not be underestimated. There is a great clamour for JW to be dropped and for Ashton to bring on the new guard in thie current 6N's, copying the lead of France. There is no doubt in many minds these guys are faster, fitter and are equipped to play an expansive game, but will Ashton be brave enough.
Spiro Zavos
Expert
This is an interesting explanation for the terrible pass that led to England being put under pressure for ths first time really in the match. It is obvious from Jonny Wilkinson's explanation that he had the right idea. His problem was that his game has always been based on kicking rather than passing and running (the exact opposite, say, to the way Stephen Larkham plays) and he did not have the experience of passing out of trouble and pressure to make the correctly-weighted pass. As David Campese always says in criticism of England's slow-plod, forever-kicking style of play, 'you can't learn to play running rugby in five minutes.' There was a lifetime of not developing passing skills in Wilkinson's mistake. The mind has the right idea but the body couldn't deliver on it. A pity, because as he says a try was on.