 Wilkinson has won 75 caps for England |
England manager Martin Johnson has hit out at critics of Jonny Wilkinson, accusing them of having an agenda against the veteran fly-half. Wilkinson came under fire after England's Six Nations win over Italy last weekend, with some calling for him to be dropped in favour of Toby Flood. "I don't agree. Jonny missed a few kicks and suddenly everybody is calling for his head," said Johnson. "Is it Jonny's fault we didn't convert line breaks? No, it's a team thing." England's World Cup-winning scrum-half Matt Dawson claimed Wilkinson's inability to marshal a game and react to situations as they happen is being exposed without more experienced decision-makers around him. "[Wilkinson] is not comfortable with the responsibility of being the team's playmaker," Dawson wrote in his column for the Daily Mail. "He can play in the way that has been planned on a flip chart in team meetings but if it comes down to him to work out on the hoof what options to take, more often than not he will kick and miss opportunities to attack. "Jonny needs players around him, guys like Mike Catt, Will Greenwood, myself or Kyran Bracken, to take decisions, then he will execute them brilliantly."  | 606: DEBATE |
But Johnson retorted: "It has become the vogue to have a pop at Jonny. It is not always right or fair and I think some people are using it for their own agenda, but that is the world we live in." Wilkinson, 30, has only ever been dropped twice by England, for Paul Grayson at the 1999 World Cup and Danny Cipriani in the 2008 Six Nations Championship. And despite stating that no player is guaranteed his England place, Johnson gave no indication he is planning a change at fly-half. Wilkinson's understudy Flood is set to be released to play for Leicester this weekend, having been the only unused replacement against Italy. While some, including former Wales fly-half and BBC pundit Jonathan Davies, claim Wilkinson has not been a dominant force for some time, and others claim he consistently stands too deep to receive the ball from his scrum-half, Johnson insisted selection for any player has to be based on the whole package he brings to the team. Wilkinson, who has won 75 caps for England, is the leading points scorer in the history of world rugby and his defence is arguably the best of any fly-half. "You have players who are not in the team who are potentially better at some areas of the game than guys that are in the team. You have to weigh up that overall impact," Johnson added. "I think Toby has been playing well. We have good depth in that position. We are lucky to have two world-class players at 10." When asked last week, Wilkinson did not reject the view that he is most comfortable playing with a general on his shoulder, barking orders and helping to guide the team around the field. Johnson acknowledged England must improve their communication ahead of the Ireland game a week on Saturday, a demand aimed specifically at inside centre Riki Flutey and scrum-half Danny Care. "We are not playing in isolation out there and that is something we will stress," said Johnson. "Danny Care is improving all the time in that position and Riki was back for his first game at this level in six or seven months. We can only get better there." Johnson has decided to keep 15 of his 32-man squad in camp for the next 24 hours. He originally released 15 players back to their clubs for this weekend's Premiership matches, including Flood and the six bench players who were used in Rome. Bath hooker Lee Mears and Worcester prop Matthew Mullan were added to the released list on Thursday. The released players are: Steffon Armitage, Chris Ashton, Matt Banahan, Jordan Crane, Louis Deacon, Ben Foden, Flood, Shontayne Hape, Dan Hipkiss, Paul Hodgson, Courtney Lawes, Mears, Mullan, Chris Robshaw, Dan Ward-Smith, David Wilson, Ben Youngs.
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