Johnny Wilkinson v Toby Flood!!

Why did Johnny Wilkinson not get taken off today?

Lets be honest England was awfull today so i guess you could say that Wilkinson was as bad as the rest of the team,But what was it 3/4 kicks at goal on the bounce that he missed.

If Toby Flood had missed that many kicks at goal he would of been taken off and replaced.

Do you think that Flood will be fly half for the next game?..Or will Wilkinson keep his place?

Flood will start next game - but that would have happened no matter how Wilko played.

With the rare exception of his place kicking Wilko did some good things today. A number of kicks out of hand were barely a yard too heavy and in other cases a slightly kinder bounce would have had us hailing him as great play maker. When Foden broke he completely missed Wilkinson on his inside in a great position to take the pass and would have been in position to take a return to finish the move, He chose instead to try for a long pass to Armitage that he was never going to make.

No, place kicking apart, he was value for money to my mind. There were too many guys other out there under performing to single him out.

He didn't place kick well at all but his overall game wasn't that bad and I would be very surprised if he kicked like that in his next game. However he should have been taken off as we needed someone to get the kicks over.

But I still back him as our man for the RWC.

There was that chip through with the weird bounce that almost worked...

There were lots of good things about him today - sadly the kicks at goal was not one of them

Missed tackles, poor passing and missing touch with a penalty.

However as I said earlier I expect that the plan was always to rotate Flood in for the next game as a part of the squad management.

I did forget the missed touch but can't remember missing tackles and poor passing. Flood should have come on though, the game needed to be changed and bringing on Youngs AND Flood would have done so more effectively.

The poor passing didn't come from Wilkinson, and he tackled really well. The centres didn't provide Armitage with one front foot ball

It was the ball not Sir Jonny

Sir Jonny of Wilkinson is simply a God, and therefore our expectations are higher than for a normal being. But, sadly even a God can have an Off day and this was Sir Jonny's, which means he'll be fine over the next few games and will silence those plebeians who dare to question his worth!! Wait till next time and then all you doubters will have to bow your heads in acknowledgement of his genius!! Huzzah!!!

I thought Johnny Wilkinson looked good in his new pair of Adidas Dan Carter boots.

I like Jonny but I like Toby too - there's only one way to decide...

FIGHT!

no its all about the boots.

FIIIIIIGHT!

I think today shows how far Flood has slipped in MJ's estimation. It was only two games ago he was first choice, and given Wilkinson's kicking it was frankly amazing MJ didn't change FH's.

Toby has it all to prove, again.

PJHolybloke, i agree

Anyone else think that using Armitage for place kicks might've been a good idea today (after it became apparent Wilkinson was having an off night)? He'd of done better than 3 from 8 or whatever wilko got

Lynagh/Dallaglio suggested Wilko's poor kicking might be to do with the stadium, since all the kickers struggled and it's a new type of enclosed stadium, I gather.

the Otago kickers had no problem kicking there last week.

the Otago kickers had no problem kicking there last week.

Look, we know every Kiwi can play in any conditions from underwater to vacuum. But when one of the most reliable kickers ever misses five and the opposition miss six, some of them absolute sitters, we are surprised.

Maybe Wilkinson just had the worst day with his boot since primary school, as did the opposition. Or maybe there is something in the conditions that had an effect, in a new stadium that no-one knows very well yet.

nb that Wilkinson has taken all the blame himself. Which is exactly what I would expect from him.

He was a revolving door in defence too which is usually the one thing he jkeps going even when his kicking goes wonky. Very worrying.

England ar fortunate with havng Scotland as the last pool in game, it gives them time to experiment and find out if this was a one off blip from Wilko and if Flood has any kind of form back yet.

Flood was clueless against Wales in the last warm-up match and gifted wilko the shirt which he quite rightly kept following the Ireland warm-up. Flood will take a while to recover from that dismal performance.