England hatch new plan to protect Jonny

His back-row minders have been instructed to put their bodies on the line to spare Wilkinson after England's playmaker-in-chief topped the tackle count in Saturday's 58-10 drubbing.

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Red Rose, red nose: Wilkinson took a battering against South Africa in the first Test

Defence coach Mike Ford said: "We do not want to see Wilko take another pounding. He's a great competitor who wants to be involved in everything.

"He is one of our best tacklers but a total of 14 is at least eight more than he should have to make, which is why we need to give him more protection.

"I've been trying to organise that since he came back for the start of the Six Nations. It's difficult to ask Jonny to stand to one side and let someone else take over because he will never do that.

"We have tried that tactic. Now what we're going to try to do is to get players to push him out of the way.

"I have to get Pat Sanderson or whoever and tell them: 'Right, if Jonny makes a particular tackle when someone else could have done it, you are accountable'. They have to be alert enough to get him out of the way."

Despite looking as though he had gone 10 rounds with Oscar de la Hoya, Wilkinson is expected to make another of his famously rapid recoveries.

Not surprisingly, Jonny and the rest have been given more time to lick their wounds, with team selection postponed for at least 24 hours until tomorrow at the earliest.

When they get round to naming it, Matt Stevens can expect to be there for his first Test of the season.

The Bath prop, last capped in Paris 15 months ago, is due to make a timely return after interrupting a holiday at his native Cape Town in response to the emergency which engulfed England last week when a virus swept through the squad.

Forwards' coach John Wells is braced for another torrid 80 minutes.

He said: "There was a sense after the final whistle that the world had caved in. But they have taken it on the chin. There are a lot of bashed bodies but they're dragging themselves up to the point where they're gagging for another game.

"No Englishman wants to see a score like last weekend but there were a lot of brave performances. A lot of them were hanging on from sickness and diarrhoea, but they took the bruises and had a bloody good go."