KEY POINTS:
LONDON - England first five-eighths Jonny Wilkinson has reignited the debate over the quality of the balls being used at the World Cup.
Defending champions England renew their rivalry with France in the semi-finals on Sunday (NZ time) with Wilkinson, who kicked all his team's points in the 24-7 win over the French in the 2003 semi-finals, concerned over the balls.
The England stand-off admitted he was stunned when he saw Stirling Mortlock's 78th-minute penalty drift wide of the posts in Sunday's 12-10 quarter-final win over Australia in Marseille.
"I saw that kick again on a replay that night and I can tell you: it was a damned fine kick. With the balls flying the way they are he has real sympathy from me there," Wilkinson told The Times newspaper.
"As a kicker here you are not completely accountable. Sometimes it is like you are almost hitting and hoping, and kickers just never do that.
"This is a difficult subject and I don't want to make a big deal out of it. But in kicking you naturally want to control as much as you can; you can't ever control the wind and you can't control the pitch conditions.
"It seems that, at this tournament, the ball is another one of those."
Wilkinson, now the leading points scorer in the history of the World Cup, missed three out of seven kicks on Sunday and admitted he was scratching his head in search of an explanation.
"I feel I've got a few kicks right in this tournament and still been punished by seeing them go wide. On Saturday (Sunday NZ time) I missed three from seven; one of those I knew immediately I'd executed wrong, but I was happy with the other two," he added.
"Don't get me wrong, I am not mentioning this as a hard-luck story. The wind on Saturday was very tough. That makes kicking really tough mentally. If the ball moves in mid-flight, you have to work out if it is the wind, the ball or yourself."
- AFP
