Wilko closing in on return

England World Cup winner could make Newcastle bench on Friday

Last updated: 21st March 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Wilko closing in on return

Wilkinson: Carried off

If things go well we will start by naming him on the bench against Leicester.

Steve Bates
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Jonny Wilkinson looks set to make his long-awaited comeback from injury against the Leicester Tigers on Friday.

The Newcastle star sat out his side's 36-25 defeat at Bath on Saturday, but is drawing ever closer to a return.

He has been out of action for six months since suffering a dislocated kneecap at Gloucester, but Newcastle director of rugby Steve Bates admits the former England fly-half could well be named a substitute for the forthcoming Kingston Park encounter.

"If things go well we will start by naming him on the bench against Leicester," Bates said.

"Jonny had a bit of a reaction this week after training. We need to look at his fitness at post-training every time, assessing how the knee reacts.

"We are not in a position to rush him back for any reason - we need to make sure it's right for him."

Positives

Newcastle's loss at Bath ended a sequence of six successive victories - their best run since winning the title in 1998 - but Bates was not too downhearted.

"We gave a try away on half-time, which was a killer blow," he added. "Our problems started with a few individual errors, which you can't afford to away from home. We only have ourselves to blame.

"But to come here and score three tries against Bath, who have been playing some good rugby this season, is quite pleasing.

"We've got to keep positive and this was perhaps something of a 'wake-up' - a reminder that we have to work hard and keep our concentration."

Bath head coach Steve Meehan agreed with Bates that it would have been an even better spectacle if the tackle area had been more closely policed by referee Andrew Small.

Meehan said: "Both Steve Bates and I were disappointed that the defensive side were not rolling away in the tackle area.

"We didn't receive a penalty at all for them failing to roll away from the tackle area. But then I thought it was Newcastle who weren't being penalised and Steve thought it was us most at fault!"

Opportunities

Bath stayed in the Guinness Premiership's top four with the win although Meehan was disappointed not to have converted more attacking possession into tries.

"The first objective in any game is to win but we had some opportunities to get the bonus point for a fourth try," he continued.

"It will be interesting to see how things pan out at the top of the Premiership over the next few weeks. You are bound to get some odd results - I hope ours was that defeat at Saracens last weekend."

Just as encouraging for Bath was the return of skipper Michael Lipman after two months out with severe concussion suffered in the Heineken Cup against Toulouse.

Lipman said: "I'm feeling a bit tired but I'm okay. There were times in recent weeks when I was worried but I had a lot of reassurance after a session with a specialist in Guernsey following five hours of testing.

"Half the battle has been just getting through it. The doubt was there - I just needed the proof that all was okay."