Was Brian Ashton right to drop Jonny Wilkinson?

Axed for the first time since 1999, Jonny Wilkinson has been made the scapegoat for England's dreadful 15-9 defeat to Scotland last week in the Six Nations Championship. He wasn't the only one who had a shocker but Brian Ashton, the England coach, claimed it was because of Wilkinson's "inconsistency" that he got the chop. Danny Cipriani takes hold of the No 10 shirt.

During the Scotland match, Wilkinson became the highest points scorer in international rugby history. But that counted for nothing as Ashton made his one solitary change. But was he right? Is now the time to blood new players or is this Ashton making a point that nobody is bigger than the team? Should Jonny Wilkinson have been dropped?

Vote now and leave your comments below.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Comments

[Robin L]

Is there any good reason why Jonny Wilkinson should not play at Full Back?
He has positional awareness, kicking ability, and is a strong tackler. In addition, England will still get the benefit of his goal-kicking ability. Most importantly, positioned behind talented younger players such as Danny Cipriani, J.W might just provide the added assurance they need to use the natural flair and spontaneity the England team have been sadly lacking for some time.

[Stevie B]

Wilkinson has not had a good 6 Nations campaign. But apart from Australia, France and then France again, England has had an atrocious last 4 years. Dropping Wilkinson will not resolve the underlying problems of English rugby. Change must start immediately and that means at the top from Rob Andrews down
After last week’s fiasco there should be no arguments if the entire set of forwards were relegated to the bench

[mick]

Its to late now just to make one change Ashton had a great opportunity to blood new players at the beginning of the championship and just to drop one player for the last game when really there's nothing to play for just sems to prove he dos'nt know what he's doing

[Jason-Bok supporter]

Ashton should be dropped!He's never been competent enough to handle the job of England coach!

[Disgruntled Lancastrian]

JW has been dropped to the bench for inconsistency!! So be it, he will be back. How about the inconsistencies of the selectors which has led to to the position that the best performing full back in the country is not even in the squad, despite the consistent poor performance of IB, that the experiment with Vainakovo has not provided the results expected and yet he is still in the side, that nobody (including the pundits) can determine the strategy that England are playing to. That team talks at half-time are ineffectual. That Vickory is still captain, despite the fact that Stevens is a better scrummager and Borthwick a better captain (you could at least see Borthwick talking to his players when he was captain). Good luck to Cipriani, he derserved his chance against Scotland. The inconsistency of the England performances must be down to the inabilities of the coaching staff to blend some of the best past and upcoming players into a team to be reckon with.

[Bobbie Moss]

I am very passionate about rugby, rugby is a passionate sport, but this Six Nations campaign by England has not been good. The final straw is Brian Ashton dropping Jonny. I have been waiting for Danny Cipriani to play but alongside Jonny not in his place. Its a lot to expect from Danny, noone can replace Jonny. I will not be renewing my England Rugby Supporters subscribtion in April, and I cannot wait to see Ashton out. Why on earth is Balshaw still in the team after his bad performances. It does not make sense

[SIMON]

Jonny has been off colour; but what is the man supposed to do? He has been playing with a rookie scrum-half inside him, who never makes a break to keep the defence honest, and centres outside of him who have zero ability to break the line. Sackey is the only back who Wilko can turn to. Kicking away slow ball was a better option that letting the three-quarters loose. Had Barkley, Lewsey and JSD been outside Jonny then the story may have been very different. Ashton is palpably not the man for the England job, but neither is Rob Andrew and therein lies the story. If Ashton goes, Andrew has to take the rap so there is a collective interest in Andrew, Ashton, Vickery, Ford and Wells staying loyal to each other while the England team goes to pot. The players and coaches are out there, but the RFU taking Rob Andrew's lead do not have the bottle to make the right decision.

[Martin Briggs]

Wilkinson was not the only player on the park who wasn't playing. What about the rest of them. Having watched all the games so far I get the feeling that the England players have no fire nor desire to win - or should I say beat the Scots, Irish or Welsh the way that they want to beat us. To be Coach of those countries when they play against England must be the easiest
job in the world - Pre match talk -
Right lads we're playing England today! No need to say anymore !!
Look what happens, they go out to avenge their country for everything the English have done to them for the past hundreds of years.
Time for England to be England again and proud of it.
Let's see the old bulldog spirit again and see what a difference it will make.

[Slythie]

Who knows what went on behind scens Jonnys a brilliant player doubt any one can live up to him

Wilkinson did not play well, but Ashton was in the stadium too. Did he not ask the team to change tactics at half-time?

It was evident that the kicking spaces against Scotland were between the backline and the fullback/wing, and needed a chip, not a big overblown garryowen.

Don't think it was only Jonny's fault that this wasn't exploited. The other players were also directionless. (And there are generally no bad kicks, only bad chases)

[Tom]

Jonny is a national treasure and will live in our hearts forever. The consumate professional, a boys own hero and a gentleman.
He needs to step but replacing Jonny with Cipriani will not fill the leadership vacuum.

[Matt]

Ashton is ludicrous, ludicrous, ludicrous!! Not in dropping Jonny : that was the right decision but why the hell has he kept in half a dozen other players who were just as, if not more so, as ineffective in the Scotland debacle...Noon, Vainkolo, Balshaw and Easter should all be given the chop as well. Why Ashton persists in picking Noon at centre is mind-boggling - he has no creativity or skill and surely the likes of Tait should be in there in place of him. Surely it was no coincidence that when England lost Noon to injury after the 36-0 defeat against South Africa, that the team's level of play in the World Cup rose dramatically....Vainkolo and Balshaw have also been ineffective. Ashton has to take some responsibility in the way we're playing...surely the 'run with the ball and play with freedom' attitude that Clive Woodward adopted in his early England days went a long way to creating the formidable side that won the 2003 World Cup and is a far better one than the 'let's not take quick taps and instead we will slow the game down' attidtude of Ashton. Ashton says that 'it's not the time to experiment; winning comes first' The 2008 6 Nations should be the EXACTLY the time to experiment...what does it matter if we lose a few games early on by playing expansive rugby, if it helps us to become better in the long term! Ashton doesn't seem to have a clue...his reputation for playing an expansive game has been engulfed by fear of failure and to be quite honest he is ineffectual and should be replaced with immediate effect.

[Stevo]

Wrong question really. Should have been was Ashton right to have dropped only Wilkinson. He was right to drop him (can't spark the back line, ineffectual & directionless kicking out of hand, very rarely makes a line break)but he was wrong to scapegoat him. Many others have been as culpable. Balshaw, Noon, Flood, Easter, Vainokolo, Vickery et al have all had below par seasons and the brighter talents of players such as JSD, Tait, Lewsey, Stevens, Lund, Allen and others are frustrated. Who would like to play for England when Mr A values past reputation and personal loyalty to friends over current form and development. Time to go Mr A.

[JD]

Of course Ashton was right to drop Wilkinson. Where he has gone wrong is waiting till now, and dropping only him when there were others at fault. Ashton has made a big error in selecting a captain who is unable to lead on the field, and unable to be dropped despite poor form. Stevens should play. If Haskell is fit enough to be on the bench he should be on from the start. Easter is a journeyman like Corry, and very far from a world class number 8.

[Kirsteen Wright]

Why on earth scapegoat Wilkinson? OK he didn't have a brilliant game but neither did the lacklustre forwards or the rest of the stolid backs. Hodgson did no better when he came on. His last kick was ridiculous. The game against Ireland is relatively unimportant now. If Ashton wanted to try something new, why not give all the young guns a go and see how they bed down. But no he holds one man up and virtually says to the rest of the world "It's not my fault we were abysmal- it's his" Sorry Ashton, you've no credability left.

[Nigel]

Right to drop JW to the bench, but to retain ALL of the other poor performers was/is a crass mistake.

Balsh was only saved due to DC's nightime excursion, he was adequate in thelast match - for the the first time in this 6N he should return to Glaws and find his form prior to possible recall for summer tour.

Vickery has stuggled (apart from France) Stevens should have had the starting berth, bring Hartley onto Bench and retain Mears.

Look at possible backrow changes but what we have is pretty good selected from those that are currentle fit. On the wings It would have been nice to swap the Volcanon for JSD although I hear JSD has injury so chance blown yet again. Lewsey should be in squad on the bench and move Tait into vacant FB slot.

JW was not the sole reason we performed so pitifully at Murryfield and it is not as if we don't have credible alternatives to trial in various positions.

Post RWC 2003 we were dreadful and we were champions, this time round as runners up we seem to starting on the same slippery slope.

I feel Brian Ashton was wrong to drop wilkinson because he is our best and most commited players. I thing that him and Sackey alone are our match winners. The thing that makes Wilkinson good is because he can perform on the big stage and with the latest exploits of Cipriani show he immaturity and thus i dont think he is ready yet. England only use Wilkinson as a scape goat for loosing as he is our best player and most commited.

[Leslie Mudway]

The media feeding frenzy over Jonny's "dropping" disgusts me. I'm not saying that he should not be allowed to find his form but some of the remarks I have seen make me think of the "What did the Romans ever do for us" bit from "Life of Brian". "So what *did* JW ever do for us?" - apart from help us win the World Cup, get repeatedly injured in the line of duty and provide a terrific role model for kids and be an inspiration to young players? Beats me.

[Andy Hopper]

Wilkinson hasn't played well other than in patches - but he has been singled out unfairly. Seems to me its an attempt to paper over the cracks of failure elsewhere in the England camp. The whole team lack direction, purpose, motivation and leadership. They are playing with little ambition, creativity or imagination - the problem is in the organisation and management of the team. Time to review it - and have the bottle to make changes.

[A Butler]

Was Ashton right to drop JW - NO. Read Simon Barnes's article in the Times today. This is the opposite of strong management and showing that nobody is bigger then the team. This is Ashton trying to save his job and blaming his shortcomings as coach on someone else who is too loyal to say anything in public. Aston is the coach. He is at fault. He must go and take Ford and Wells with him. Enough is enough.

[Chris]

Ok, so Jonny had a nightmare match and it has been a shocking 6 Nations, but he's not the only one who played badly. This is not the right match to throw Cipriani onto the pitch, starting at 10. He's already had too much negative press attention from last week's events.

Did Balshaw really do enough to retain his position??

...or Ashton?

Wrong person to replace, in my view.

[Tommy]

Its difficult to say if it is right to drop Jonny or not, Ashton is right in saying he has been inconsistent but so have so many of the other England players. I dont think the problem is that Jonny has been dropped, but that only Jonny has been dropped.

He is leaving a back line with such limited experience and if Ashton really wants consistency from his team is this the right thing to do? When the chips are down you look to and inspirational player to focus you. There are no natural leaders in this Englnd squad so i just hope Cipriani can be inspirational in the way plays.

But at the end of it all, you cant drop Jonny!! He has got England out of dificult times in the past, im sure he could do it again.

[Bob Yule]

Jonny has been a bit unlucky, because we haven't been getting a lot from the loose forwards or the scrum half of late, and he hasn't had many attacking opportunities. Having said that, he hasn't been getting much yardage on his kicks and it's right that we try something different.