England role for Jonny?
JONNY WILKINSON has been linked with an England role in another World Cup campaign — 12 years after he kicked the team to glory in the 2003 tournament. The 35-year-old former Lions fly-half, who retired as a player at the end of last season, is destined to act as a kicking consultant for England, according to reports in France. However,
Sportsmail has learned that such an arrangement is far from a foregone conclusion. It is understood that the notion of Wilkinson working with England on an ad hoc basis has been discussed and considered, following his invitation into the training camp ahead of the autumn series at Twickenham last November. Indications last night were that the No 10 icon’s involvement with Stuart Lancaster’s squad is not entirely out of the question. As well as a part-time coaching role at former club Toulon, Wilkinson is a World Cup ambassador, has a range of commercial commitments and is being unveiled today as one of the ITV pundits for the global event on these shores later this year.
221 POINTS scored on the final day — 81 in Rome, 50 at Murrayfield and 90 at Twickenham. 27 TRIES scored on the final day at an average of nine per game. In the previous rounds, 33 were scored in 12 matches — an average of 2.8 per game. 55 TWO-TRY Ben Youngs (left) helped England to their biggest-ever points haul against France. It was also the highest scoring match
between the nations. +30 IRELAND’S 40-10 win at Murrayfield equalled their biggest-ever margin of victory over Scotland.
61 WALES scored a record number of points against Italy. Their previous best came in a 60-21 victory in 1999. 11 GEORGE NORTH scored a hat-trick of tries in 11 minutes against Italy. He had previously gone four games and 419 minutes without scoring. 4 IRELAND scored four tries against Scotland — two of them by Sean O’Brien (left) — which was the same as in their previous four games in total. 2012 ENGLAND last scored seven Twickenham tries when beating Fiji 54-12 in November 2012, with two each from Charlie Sharples and Manu Tuilagi (right).