Wilkinson happy with his kicking
England will rely on Jonny Wilkinson's kicking against France
Also In The News
|
McLaren have insisted that Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton will be given an equal chance to win the Formula One drivers' championship in the final race in Brazil. |  |
Thursday, 11, Oct 2007 10:10
England talisman Jonny Wilkinson has insisted there is nothing wrong with his goal-kicking ahead of Saturday's World Cup semi-final showdown against France.
Wilkinson hasn't been at his clinical best so far in the tournament, kicking only 62.5% of the penalty and conversion attempts that have come his way.
"At the moment, I am doing the best I can," said Wilkinson. "For me that will always be good enough as I know the work I am putting in preparation for these big games."
Many of the kickers in the tournament, including Wilkinson and New Zealand's Dan Carter, have voiced their concerns over the quality of the match balls being used. But Wilkinson refused to blame the balls for his supposed loss of form.
"My whole ethos has been never to blame your tools and I would have had nothing to say were it not for the fact that it had been mentioned that there were people struggling with the balls," said Wilkinson.
"My response was that they are a little bit different, take a little bit of getting used to and sometimes they do things that you are not quite sure about.
"We had an opportunity to kick with the match balls on Thursday. That's fantastic for getting used to them and, hopefully, giving us a better shot at knocking a few more over," added Wilkinson.
Wilkinson kicked all of England's points in the 12-10 quarter-final win over Australia and became the World Cup's highest ever points scorer in the process, with a total of 234 points.