JONNY BE GOOD
After the England team to face Scotland in the final group game of this year's World Cup had been announced, Jonny Wilkinson stood near a corner of a large room surrounded by so many reporters that even those in the middle of the huddle could barely hear what the quietly spoken fly-half was saying.
Those at the front were little the wiser because Wilkinson, in his polite, unhurried way, gave lengthy answers to questions that revealed very little. Everything was met with a Boycott-like straight bat, patted defensively back down the track.
So the prospect of Wilkinson's autobiography being anything other than an exercise in circumlocution looked remote, especially when its title was revealed: Jonny. England's previous World Cup campaign had barely ended when a couple players published their memoirs, exposing the fault-lines in what had been a relatively successful campaign.
Wilkinson has trumped them, in his understated way. As the Rugby Football Union investigates and reviews England's World Cup on and off the field, and decides whether to offer the team manager Martin Johnson a new contract, the fly-half's words will offer some direction.
"What is required is individual responsibility," said Wilkinson, reflecting on the night out enjoyed by some of the squad in Queenstown after the opening round victory over Argentina. "What I cannot understand is the naivety of people going out to the extent that they did and it not crossing their minds that it would find its way back to the media."
Jonny be good; as he admits, he is the opposite of a party animal and the prospect of an uninhibited night out is anathema to him, never mind after an unconvincing performance during a tournament England had planned so long and laboriously for.
"We need to ask ourselves what are we here for and what have we worked so hard to be here for," he said. "My own position is so far on the obsessive side of preparation and professionalism that I fear my point of view is not going to be shared by anyone." He did speak out after the next game: England had beaten Georgia with less comfort than the 41-10 scoreline suggested and Wilkinson was concerned that the individualism which had been apparent off the field, the wilful disregard of the squad ethos, was becoming evident on it with players going off gameplan.
When England needed to dig deep against France in the quarter-final, they lacked the spirit of 2007. The issue was not that players relaxed by having a few beers – England were hardly alone in enjoying downtime and even the winners New Zealand had to grapple with excess – but that the professionalism that had characterised their previous two World Cup campaigns was, like the tournament balls Wilkinson had such a hard time with, veering in the wrong direction.
England's behaviour was contrasted with the more sober Wales's, but the main difference between the squads was that the Welsh tended to relax in private. Their trip was not incident-free: there was a scene after the quarter-final victory over Ireland, but as it happened in the privacy of the squad's hotel in Wellington, it was easily hushed up.
While the headlines from the serialisation of Wilkinson's book were dominated by his observations about the campaign in New Zealand, more interesting was his revelation that back in 2010 he had felt detached from the England set-up, questioning whether he belonged.
The autobiography reveals Wilkinson to be a tortured soul, constantly questioning beating himself up: when he was first called into the England squad at the age of 18, he said he wanted to hide and even more than a year later enjoyed the sanctuary of his hotel room.
But by 2010 he was one of England's most experienced players but he questioned whether he wanted to play for them any more. In October that year his club, Toulon, were playing Ospreys in the Heineken Cup, a tournament that this Friday will start without Wilkinson and the French club who have to make do with the Amlin Challenge Cup, and Johnson was due to attend.
The following day, he met Wilkinson at a restaurant with the England attack coach, Brian Smith. "The conversation topic in my head is not what role I should play; it is whether I am going to play at all," agonises Wilkinson, a month before the start of the autumn internationals. "With England, my confidence has just disappeared … I do not know if I can carry on."
He contrasted England with Toulon where, in contrast to England, he felt a sense of belonging. He spent four hours with Johnson and Smith who told him they do not want him to end his international career. They told him not to make a hasty decision, and that November Wilkinson was at Twickenham for the series of friendly internationals, watching from the bench as Toby Flood helps orchestrate a victory over Australia that, for the first time under Johnson, sees England tagged as genuine World Cup contenders.
One of the reasons Johnson was appointed team manager after the 2008 Six Nations was that some on the RFU had long been concerned about the selection of the national side, a factor behind the removal of his immediate predecessors, Brian Ashton and Andy Robinson, yet the treatment of Wilkinson is an example of how selection did not improve.
The England management regarded Wilkinson and Flood as a case of either/or. They were not considered to be a suitable partnership at 10-12 and England persevered with Shontayne Hape at inside-centre, turning to Mike Tindall at the end of the group stage in the World Cup.
Flood and Wilkinson appeared together in the quarter-final against France, an act of desperation that contradicted all that had gone on before. A year before, Wilkinson had been concerned that he was not himself when playing for England, reckoning that the side was better adapted to having Flood at fly-half, but with the World Cup less than 12 months away, Johnson wanted the comfort of having his most reliable goal-kicker, and a tournament winner, around. He may have been better off letting go and it may yet cost him.
AND ON TO THE HEINEKEN CUP
Leinster, the holders, have been made joint favourites with Toulouse to win the Heineken Cup, which starts this weekend, despite being without their Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll for the entire campaign.
The two sides have been the only ones to win the competition in the last three years, Leinster in 2009 and last May, Toulouse in 2010, while an English club last claimed the trophy in 2007.
Top 14 sides made little impact last season, while the previous campaign Northampton were the only Premiership side to make the last eight, exiting at the quarter-final stage at Munster, the Saints' destination in the opening round.
English and French clubs have complained in the past that they are at a disadvantage to their Celtic rivals because qualifying for the Heineken Cup is almost as exacting as taking part in the competition, whereas sides from Ireland, Scotland and Wales know from the start of every season that they have a very high chance of qualifying.
It may be significant that the top three in the Top 14, Toulouse, Clermont Auvergne and Castres, are all in this season's Heineken Cup, along with the top four in the Premiership, Harlequins, Saracens, London Irish and Gloucester.
With Northampton making their move up the table after getting players back from the World Cup, France and England will be armed with their form teams in the tournament. And then there is Leicester, beaten finalists in 2007 and 2009, whose best chance of a trophy this season looks like being in Europe.
Wales failed to provide a quarter-finalist last season, but Ospreys have started the RaboDirect Pro 12 strongly and Scarlets will be fortified by the return of backs such as Rhys Priestland and George North who made an impact in the World Cup.
Players from all bar one of the squads that took part in this year's World Cup will feature in the tournament, Japan being the exception. Ominously for Scotland, half the players in their 30-strong party in New Zealand play their rugby outside the country, a number that will increase to 16 when second row Richie Gray joins Sale.
As for a winner, Saracens should enjoy a less hazardous ride in their group than last season, although Treviso are resolute at home, while Northampton will be placed if they emerge at the top of a demanding pool. Racing-Metro look an outside bet, while even without O'Driscoll, Leinster look equipped to make the last eight as top seeds.
• This is an extract from our free rugby union email, The Breakdown. If you want to subscribe all you have to do is sign up here.
