Jonny Wilkinson has not laid his hands on much in the way of silverware since he became the most celebrated rugby player on the planet. In fact, he has been positively starved of anything resembling a trophy. He had barely started shaving when he helped secure the Premiership title for Newcastle in 1997, and when he won the other thing in Sydney six years later, he was still very much a B-list celebrity, if he was a celebrity at all.

French Top 14 semi-final: Toulon 29 Clermont Auvergne 35

Toulon 29 Clermont Auvergne 35

The England fly-half is on the brink of winning his first silverware in six years. He tells Matt Gatward how a year in Provence put a spring back into his step – and why that's good news for England

Bath 39 Leeds 3

Newcastle Falcons 21 London Wasps 25

Steve Bates insists he is proud of Newcastle's achievements this season despite having his contract terminated as Falcons rugby director.

Mike Catt, revered by English rugby folk for his off-the-bench heroics during the victorious World Cup campaign in Australia in 2003 and a realistic contender for a coaching role when the red-rose army go in search of the title on home soil in 2015, has been moving towards this moment for well over a year. Now, it has just about arrived. When London Irish complete their rather disappointing season against Northampton at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday, the grand old man of the midfield fraternity will finally wind up his playing career.

England is not really the place for Englishmen to be playing just at the moment: ask Iain Balshaw, Ayoola Erinle and Magnus Lund, all of whom are now contemplating a rare shot at European glory with Biarritz in the Heineken Cup final later this month. Yet precious few France-based personnel are likely to make the cut for the red-rose trip to Australia and New Zealand in June, even though they are performing at levels over and above that commonly seen in the Premiership this term and are dominating every last piece of cross-border business.

Wasps No 10 wants to be part of trip Down Under before moving to Super 15

The Rugby Football Union would block proposals to expand the Guinness Premiership from 12 to 14 clubs.

Wasps, one of the great names in world rugby and among the most successful Premiership teams of the professional era, have been threatened with a winding-up order from the tax authorities over unpaid sums totalling more than £1m – a quarter of their officially sanctioned playing budget. The warning of action by HM Revenue and Customs was issued earlier this month and club officials are now discussing ways of clearing the debt as quickly as possible.

If you can't join them, you might as well try to beat them. Having tired of waiting for another chance to pull on the No 10 jersey for the first-choice England team, Danny Cipriani has accepted an invitation to play for the Barbarians in their two end-of season matches against international opposition – the first of which just happens to be England at Twickenham on Sunday 30 May.

England manager sticks to his guns – and under-fire coaching team – after Paris loss