Wilko’s late blow stuns Saracens

Far from taking the soft option of putting his feet up for this week's renewal of the Six Nations, the fly half treated himself to a full frontal tackle on a 20-stone Samoan prop during the course of a bread-andbutter Premiership match which he proceeded to win 90 seconds from time by smacking a penalty over off an upright. At least he was still there at the very end, unlike Rome the previous week.

The fly half substitution may have caused England a bit of grief against Italy, but the idea of withdrawing Wilkinson as long as he is hale and hearty amounts to sacrilege at Kingston Park. Even if he had one leg hanging off, they would still think twice about it.

If Newcastle's victory proved a touch fortuitous and the manner of it, a short-range penalty a foot outside the 22, positively pedestrian, Wilkinson's demonstration of a workaholic had to be seen to be admired.

Why would he want to rest up for France in Paris on Saturday night when he could concede six stone to Census Johnston on a careering route to the try line and stop the mighty Polynesian in his tracks? 'The guy is a genius and people need to remember that at times,' John Fletcher, Newcastle's director of rugby, said. 'What Jonny can do with a rugby ball is astounding.

I don't think there is another player in world rugby who works as hard as Jonny does, on and off the field. He can do anything.'

On top of everything else, Wilkinson showed the 8,000 crowd something they had not seen before and which he had not intended, a winning penalty bounced over off a friendly piece of wood high up on the left hand upright. It was enough for Newcastle to complete the double over Sarries and send their opponents cursing all the way back to Watford at missing the opportunity to have jumped into third place.

The notion of Wilkinson missing from a centimetre or two outside the 22 never occurred to anyone, least of all Rodd Penney, the Saracens' centre whose hand in the ruck had given him the opportunity. 'I have 100 per cent faith in Jonny in those circumstances,' Fletcher said. 'That's what he does best — always performs when the pressure is on.

'The man is just such a great ambassador for the sport. He is a great player who stands for good things. Some of the comments made about him after the Wales game were baffling in the extreme. I don't see what people don't see. 'You would never say of any player that he would never be subbed but I would have to think pretty long and hard about taking Jonny off.'

There would have been too many echoes of Wales at Twickenham and Italy in Rome for Wilkinson to have been entirely satisfied at finishing up on the right side of the closest of shaves. Newcastle, using the full width of the pitch, went through the gears and stitched together enough handling moves to have had a more than the solitary try to show for it — Mathew Tait's sumptuous break creating the platform for Toby Flood to swoop on his fourth touchdown in as many games.

Sarries, the club England have ignored all season by not selecting any of their players, had let Newcastle off the hook long before they did so again in the final 90 seconds. Adam Powell, a midfield substitute after Andy Farrell suffered a recurrence of the rib trouble that had kept him out for the previous fortnight, tore through, only for Kevin Yates to drop the pass in-goal.

Newcastle's second half power failure gave the veteran prop every hope that he, and Sarries, would get away with the fumble. A win would have been a fitting riposte to the English management from a team built on an assortment of one-cap wonders, old hands, solid citizens and young guns like Richard Haughton.

'We're supposedly a bunch of nondescripts,' Alan Gaffney, Saracens' Australian director of rugby, said, drily. 'We don't have anyone in anything as far as England's concerned. I don't know why.'

Ben Skirving grabbed the corner try that marked the turning of the tide. Glen Jackson appeared in the move twice, then twice stroked his team ahead from the penalty spot before Wilkinson, inevitably, had the last word.