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Jonny Wilkinson is excelling in France
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Donald McRae travels to meet in-form England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson as he continues his French odyssey with Toulon, in The Guardian.
"It's definitely coming back," Jonny Wilkinson says quietly of the form and assurance that once helped him win a World Cup at the death. That same deadly conviction was evident earlier this month when Wilkinson scored all of his new team's 18 points and steered Toulon to a memorable victory over their illustrious opponents, Toulouse, before a crowd of 60,000.
"He made 20 big hits, over three times the tackles expected from a fly-half, and proved as withering in defence as he was relentless with the boot. Despite defeat, his opposite number, Frédéric Michalak, spread his hands wide and said of Wilkinson's return: "It's great for rugby."
"Yet on Saturday, to protect the famously intense Wilkinson from himself, his coach, Philippe Saint-André, started with him on the bench against Biarritz – and Toulon collapsed without him. Wilkinson has reclaimed the aura of a man who could, once more, become just as important to England as he already is to Toulon.
"Having suffered terribly from injury over the last six years, Wilkinson qualifies the praise with a more introspective appraisal of his French resurgence. "It's difficult to know for sure," he cautions. "It's a new scenario and hard to quantify. In terms of progression, the feeling of comfort, I'm getting to where I need to be. But in terms of, 'Am I happy in what I'm doing on the field?' the answer is always 'No.' There is much more I could be doing. If I was playing amazingly I would still say the same. But I honestly mean it when I say I've got a lot more to do here."
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