British & Irish Lions tour 2013: Jonny Wilkinson plays down chances

 
PA
30 April 2013

Jonny Wilkinson has urged British & Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland to look elsewhere when choosing his fly-halves for the forthcoming tour to Australia.

With Gatland watching from the Twickenham stands, Wilkinson produced a man-of-the-match display to kick Toulon into their first Heineken Cup final in a 24-12 victory over Saracens.

The 33-year-old was magnificent, booting all his side's points as he demonstrated on what was almost certainly his final appearance at the home of English rugby that he remains a force.

Bookmakers reacted by slashing his odds to be included in the Lions' touring party when it is named tomorrow morning, but Wilkinson is unwilling to promote his own cause.

"The Lions is difficult for me because it's not at all that I wouldn't consider it, it would be fabulous," the Toulon captain said.

"It's up there with the most amazing experiences you can get in rugby.

"But I watch guys like Owen Farrell, Toby Flood, Dan Biggar and Jonathan Sexton and it is them who are driving rugby forward.

"Perhaps they should be the ones driving this tour forward as well."

Wilkinson's headline-grabbing performance was the highlight of a dour semi-final based around the set-piece.

Saracens created a couple of fine try-scoring opportunities that were lost to poor handling, but came off second best up front where the muscular Toulon pack proved too strong.

Farrell kicked four penalties - the 21-year-old was schooled by Wilkinson, one of his predecessors as England fly-half - and director of rugby Mark McCall felt his side deserved more.

"It was a really close game. The scoreline doesn't say that, it makes it look comfortable for Toulon, but that wasn't the case," he said.

"We had a couple of decent opportunities in their 22 but we couldn't take them. We couldn't sustain the pressure and the game was taken away from us.

"It will be interesting to find out how many penalties were given against the attacking side. It seemed like a lot.

"When you have that kind of game where the defensive team is rewarded and the attacking team isn't, having the ball is of little value and you get a game where the neutral comes along and sees no tries and hardly any chances."

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