In a somewhat surprising decision, the England Rugby coach Martin Johnson has decided to give Jonny Wilkinson another chance to show what he is capable of in this weekend’s Six Nations game against Ireland.
There had been considerable speculation regarding Martin Johnson’s potential final team selection. Certainly the side struggled against Italy in a game where they repeatedly made major errors and only won the game by what could be considered to be more luck than judgement. In the end he decided to make no changes at all and for the first time since he took the job as coach he is playing an identical fifteen.
Since the game against Italy Wilkinson in particular has had to endure some severe criticism for the way in which he failed to lead play and his sudden lack of ability to kick the ball. Wilkinson has said that he can shrug off this criticism from outside, but what was more difficult to handle was his internal criticism.
Johnson has described the current side as “Work in progress” and that he thought that the criticism that Wilkinson had been receiving was unfair. Coach Brian Smith has also defended Wilkinson. He said that Jonny enjoyed the total support of both himself and the rest of the team. He pointed out that despite the kicking failures Jonny’s late drop goal had put the team back in the game and that he had been very much involved in scoring the winning try.
Brian Smith also slated the media saying that much of it was made up former players who were hired to provide sound bites, and writers who didn’t know enough about rugby to justify their criticisms.
With odds of 20/21 being offered by Boylesports, England remain the marginal favourites to win against Ireland this weekend.