Top 14: England release Wilkinson for
Toulon's opening game of the new season
15 July
2009
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In demand: Jonny Wilkinson has
been granted French leave
Photo: Michael Paler |
Jonny
Wilkinson will be available to make his Toulon
debut on the opening day of the Top 14 season after England
manager Martin Johnson agreed to release him.
Toulon
are due to open their 2009/10 campaign in a glamour
home tie against newly promoted
Racing-Metro 92, and Wilkinson has now been given
the green light to play his first competitive game since
dislocating his knee in October.
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Toulon
had feared their star-signing would be unavailable due to a
clash with a four-day training camp for England’s EPS squad,
but it now looks certain that Wilkinson will be donning the
club’s famous red and black shirt on August 15th
instead.
His
signing has caused a huge amount of interest both in Toulon
and throughout France, and club president Mourad Boudjellal
will be delighted at Wilkinson’s availability.
Johnson
said he had been impressed by Wilkinson’s current fitness
and insisted that players within the 32-strong EPS will be
treated on an individual basis.
“Jonny
is a world-class player when he is fit. I spoke to him
yesterday and he is raring to go, he just needs games. His
knee is as strong as it has ever been and at 30 he is
potentially at his peak.
“He will
be at our training camp next month and he will play for
Toulon that weekend. Everyone will be managed as
individuals,” said Johnson.
The
former England captain denied Wilkinson was being given
special treatment and highlighted the inclusion of injured
Leicester fly-half Toby Flood as a case in point. “We picked
the best 32 players. Those who were chosen cannot afford to
sit back and think of the autumn: they have to play well for
their clubs. If those who were left out are as desperate to
play for England as they say they are, they have to show it
in their form,” he added.
That
last comment could be seen as a direct challenge to
discarded fly-half Danny Cipriani and Stade Francais bound
flanker James Haskell. Both have been dropped from the
England team in recent months due to poor club form,
although Johnson has been at pains to stress the EPS did not
mean the England team was now a closed shop.
The
apparent ‘entente cordiale’ between Johnson and Toulon will
no doubt please other England hopefuls currently playing in
France, although the fact Wilkinson has release clauses
written into his club contract has no doubt helped his
cause. This is not the case with the Brive players such as
Andy Goode, Jamie Noon and Riki Flutey, although there is
presently very good co-operation between the Limousin club
and the RFU.
Johnson
and Rob Andrew – the RFU’s elite performance director – are
both due in Brive tomorrow (Friday) to discuss the issue of
releasing players next season, something the French club has
always maintained it will co-operate fully with.
“We want
players to turn up when they are supposed to,” said Andrew.
“We had an excellent relationship with Brive last season,
but we have more guys in France now than we did then.
“The issues are the training weeks before the
autumn and Six Nations campaigns and the fallow weekends
during the championship. If players go to France, we have to
be certain they we available when Martin wants them,” he
added.
As for
Wilkinson, the player himself said he was “enormously proud”
to have been recalled to the EPS, adding in his Times
column that “the support of the management is something you
cannot put a value on”.
The
30-year-old World Cup winner said his primary aim remained
putting in good performances for Toulon, and that if England
selection followed then he would be delighted. “Playing for
my country means everything,” he said.
And the
former Newcastle Falcons star insisted that his friendship
with Johnson would not earn him any favours.
“Johnno
still holds all the cards. When he was a player, he was a
mentor and guiding hand for me. Now there is a new respect
for him as a manager, which allows a healthy distance. I
still value him as a good friend, but I have to earn his
respect not by playing with him, but now in the way I play
for him.”
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