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PARIS - After half an hour Jonny Wilkinson had a full house of misses - conversion, drop goal and penalty - and even England's rugby fans must have wondered if three years out of the game had taken the edge off their sharpest weapon.
But, as he has
done so many times during those injury-racked years, the first five-eighth dusted himself down, put it behind him and thought about the next opportunity.
It did not come until a 47th minute penalty and after his early wobbles, the perfectionist goalkicker was not about to be rushed.
At the end of a week when his concerns about the balls had made the headlines, he rejected the first one offered to him from the sidelines, shouting out: "that is not a match ball."
Three misses to his name, uncertainty over the ball and most of the 80,000 crowd whistling, but it was nothing to the master craftsman as he confidently split the posts.
England were still trailing 9-8 after that, defending desperately as the French assaults became a constant wave.
In a rare escape, Wilkinson - who kicked all the points in a 24-7 win over France at the same stage in 2003 - lined up another drop goal but saw the ball rebound from a post, and then he needed treatment after being flattened in a tackle.
Back to defence, the clock ticking down, then an England attack and a high tackle from replacement hooker Dimitri Szarzewski on Jason Robinson suddenly left Wilkinson centre stage again.
It was the 75th minute, a place in the World Cup final probably depending on the accuracy of his kick and the state of his mind.
All those lonely hours on the training field. All those weeks in the treatment room and all those painful months of rehabilitation, and suddenly it was down to one more perfect execution of the most famous kicking technique in the game. Straight and true, the ball sailed over and everything had changed.
England's forwards ground down the clock with all the experience gained by the oldest team ever to take the field in a World Cup.
Wilkinson, though, had the final word, just as he had four years ago in the final against Australia when his last-gasp drop goal won the title for England.
Another magnificent drop goal, a 78th-minute connection that ridiculed the three scratchy first-half efforts of French pivot Lionel Beauxis, sailed over the bar and England, incredibly were on their way to the final.
"I think my body has never felt so sore," Wilkinson told ITV television after the 14-9 win.
Four weeks ago Wilkinson had sat in the stands here nursing an injured ankle while England were humiliated 36-0 by South Africa in the pool stage.
In seven days, if the Springboks get past Argentina on Sunday, he could line up against them with a chance to help England become the first team to retain the World Cup.
One man does not make a team, certainly not in rugby, but England become a team to fear when Wilkinson is among their number.
- REUTERS
