Wilkinson resumes drive for perfection

4.00pm - By CHRIS HEWETT

Nineteen minutes into yesterday's red-letter Premiership game at Sixways, some bloke called Wilkinson lined up a penalty shot from three inches inside the Worcester half and bounced it off the crossbar.

A quarter of an hour or so later, he attempted a 52-metre kick and dropped it a centimetre short. He never was any good.

In all seriousness, Jonny-boy was utterly thunderstruck at missing the first one, and looked even less happy at failing a second time.

He is, quite clearly, every bit as much an obsessive as he was when the deteriorating nerves in his neck finally gave up the ghost in a bog-standard match on Tyneside more than eight months ago.

Here, in his competitive comeback, he had the bronzed, sleek look of a natural sportsman who has spent half a year in the gym and the other half on the sun-lounger.

He threw quality passes off both hands, he tackled his tonnage, he even made the odd half-break.

After the week England have just had, they should throw a party. He was too hot for Worcester, certainly. But then, all 14 of his team-mates were too hot for Worcester.

The Midlanders, full of energy on their Premiership debut, gave Newcastle some grief up front for 20 minutes, but they were depressingly ponderous around the base of scrum and ruck, and once the Samoan centre Dale Rasmussen messed up a straightforward move that should have resulted in a try for Thomas Lombard, the likelihood of them threatening the opposition whitewash again was remote indeed.

Rob Andrew, the director of rugby at Newcastle and Wilkinson's philosopher king, reported before the game that he had "never seen him better".

It had been in the back of Andrew's mind to give his prize asset a six-month break, in an effort to protect the outside-half from his own rampant perfectionism.

As it turned out, the injury saved him the trouble. Newcastle - and England - now have what they crave: a fully fit and rested midfield play-maker.

The panic is over, hang out the bunting.

Wilkinson kicked 15 points, which is about par for the course. His side scored three tries away from home, which was their equivalent of eight under for the day.

- INDEPENDENT