Bright new dawn?

While rugby superboy Jonny Wilkinson has been beset by injuries, the England team have slumped to a lowly sixth in the International rankings. Now, with a new “elite director of rugby” on board and a magnificently transformed stadium, can the struggling squad climb back from the brink? NOVEMBER 2003: With 26 seconds of extra-time remaining of the Rugby World Cup final in Sydney, and England and Australia locked at 17-17, Jonny Wilkinson receives a pass from his team-mate Matt Dawson and steers a drop goal between the posts to secure a victory that has passed into sporting folklore. When Wilkinson comes marching home, he discovers he has become a national icon. NOVEMBER 2006: Wilkinson has not worn the red rose of England since that unforgettable night due to a succession of knee, neck, bicep and groin injuries plus an appendix operation. During his 36-month absence, the once proud World Cup holders have slumped to a lowly sixth in the International Rugby Board rankings, behind New Zealand, France, South Africa, Australia and Ireland. They’ve failed to finish higher than third in the Six Nations Championship. But when the New Zealand All Blacks, the popular choice to win next year’s World Cup in France, arrive on these shores for this month’s Investec Challenge tournament (which also involves South Africa and Argentina), they will find English players and spectators optimistic that they are about to enter a bright new dawn. To begin with, the astute Rob Andrew has been appointed “elite director of rugby”, beating World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward to the job. At the same time, the Twickenham stadium (the home of rugby in Middlesex) has been magnificently transformed by the rebuilt South Stand, which brings the capacity to 82,000. The team’s fortunes on the pitch may have slumped – they have now lost their last five internationals, which represents their worst run of results since the mid-1980s – but ever since Wilkinson’s now legendary hoof to glory, any England international is a “must-see” occasion and every ticket for the New Zealand clash was sold out within hours of going on sale. But let us return to the subject of Wilkinson, this country’s first rugby superstar and an athlete as famously obsessive about his health and fitness as he is about his peculiar art of penalties and drop goals. Ironic, then, that a chap who is wont to breakfast on an eight-egg omelette made without the yolks (“That’s the thing about food – the bit that makes it fantastic is the bit that’s bad for you”) should have been missing from international rugby for such a long period of time because his body keeps breaking down at the most inopportune moments, such as the torn knee ligaments that are presently preventing him playing club rugby for Newcastle. “I haven’t had a lot to say for myself on the pitch since the 2003 World Cup,” he says with tangible regret. “But people still seem to take an interest in me, which is very nice of them but a part of me believes I simply don’t deserve this kind of attention. “The nicest thing about a team game like rugby is earning the respect of your team-mates and that’s what I’ve missed most all these months at international level. It’s why I play the game – to win things certainly but also to win respect.” Rob Andrew, Wilkinson’s former coach and mentor at Newcastle (and predecessor in the fly-half role for England), believes that the superboy’s three years out of the public gaze has been good for him as a person, if not an athlete. “It’s difficult to realise just how big Jonny is, not only in England, but in France, New Zealand, everywhere they play rugby. He’s matured a lot since the World Cup. And, yes, I think being out of the spotlight has been good for him. When the whole “bigger than Beckham” thing was going on, he didn’t know how to cope with it at times. He doesn’t particularly like being the centre of attention but he’s realistic enough to realise it goes with the job of being Jonny Wilkinson.” In his new role, Rob Andrew is at the very top of the RFU’s coaching hierarchy. With his librarian’s spectacles and haircut mixed with his boyish charm, Andrew appears marginally less threatening than Clark Kent. But looks are deceptive. As a player, at a time of crisis, he would slip out of his street persona and be instantly transformed into Superman. His towering drop goal against Australia in the dying seconds of the 1995 World Cup quarter-final in South Africa, with the scores tied at 22-22, may have been superseded in the nation’s memories by Wilkinson’s effort eight years later, but at the time it was the very stuff of sporting legend. England will be expecting similar miracles from a man who is far tougher than his popular image as “Mr Nice Guy” suggests, as the players and Chief Coach Andy Robinson have no doubt already discovered. “When a player gets to the Elite Playing Squad, particularly the sharp end of it, no one should be in any doubt that he’s good enough to play for England,” says Andrew. “Quite frankly, there have been too many that haven’t passed all the tests. The ball is now in the court of the senior players. They have got to produce the form that you would expect of an England player and not rely on something that they did 18 months ago. That will not be happening again.” Last season, Andrew did not shirk from criticising Robinson in his newspaper columns but insists the coach should not feel remotely threatened by his arrival at Twickenham. “There are no issues; it’s a clean slate,” explains the new head honcho. “Let’s be clear that I’m not undermining Andy in any way, shape or form. He’s the England head coach. I’m the director of rugby. Full stop.” The England XV may have changed out of all recognition since the heady days of 2003: they’re now without their talismanic skipper Martin Johnson and his first lieutenant in the pack, Jason Leonard. But RFU chief executive, Francis Baron, is quick to dispel any mood of doom and gloom. “We will be going to next year’s World Cup to do the country proud and do our damndest to retain the trophy. “There’s going to be no more moaning or wishing that we had more training days. We must put an end to the incessant bickering. We’re going to challenge as best we can. There are going to be no more excuses.”