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« Johnson springs a surprise | | Seven deadly sins Wales have to put right »

June 18, 2010

Posted on 06/18/2010

Wilkinson left to kick his heels

The day England bamboozle the Wallabies on the field the way they have just befuddled them in selection, they will stand a decent chance of revisiting the World Cup-winning glories of 2003, according to Chris Hewett in The Independent.

"Urgently in need of victory in tomorrow's second and final Test on the very patch of grass that yielded them the finest moment in their history, the tourists have shunned the blindingly obvious by leaving Jonny Wilkinson, the man who dropped the goal that won the trophy, on the bench. Radical? Adventurous? Possibly. Crazy? There is barely an Australian in the country who does not think so.

"It is not the business of Martin Johnson, the England manager, to do the things the Wallaby nation expects him to do. Under normal circumstances, his business is quite the opposite. But these are not normal circumstances. Johnson's record of eight wins from 22 Tests, none of them against serious southern hemisphere opposition, is far short of satisfactory and another defeat here would weaken him badly.

"Yet England, blessed with such set-piece superiority over a second-string Australian front row that they seem certain to scrummage their way to half-a-dozen kickable penalties at least, have decided against promoting the best kicker of them all to the starting line-up."

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