The great stand-off: who is English rugby's best No 10?

After Wilkinson's dire display in Italy, and with Cipriani off to pastures new, Chris Hewett looks at the battle for supremacy at fly-half

(REUTERS / GETTY IMAGES)

Australia, New Zealand and South Africa know precisely where they stand on the outside-half issue as they move towards next year's World Cup; Ireland and France can see the road ahead; Argentina are blessed with Juan Martin Hernandez, whose genius must be measured on the Hugo Porta scale; the Welsh always have an option or two up their sleeves. And England? They have a debate on their plate. Again.

The poverty of the attacking display against Italy in Rome – only once in 15 previous contests with the Azzurri had they been restricted to a single try – has rebounded hard on Jonny Wilkinson, who, for the third time in his career, is labouring under the weight of public suspicion. Martin Johnson, the England manager, went out of his way this week to deflect the criticism, but he was not wholly successful. Wilkinson, he tacitly admitted, is more adept at some parts of the No 10's trade than he is at others. What he did not admit, but must know, is that the sub-standard bits are the ones most closely linked to the running, passing game.

Johnson also knows he has room to manoeuvre, for England have their strongest bank of outside-halves for many a long year. Is he bold enough to move against Wilkinson as Brian Ashton did in promoting Danny Cipriani to the starting line-up against Ireland in 2008? The likelihood of Ashton's successor doing something similar for this year's meeting with the Irish a week today is not great, but there comes a point in the World Cup cycle when the big calls demand to be made. That point is very nearly upon us.

Jonny Wilkinson

The most celebrated rugby player on the planet provided convincing answers to most of the questions asked of him many moons ago, but the big question remains: is he really the complete outside-half his legions of supporters make him out to be, or is he a small piece of an outside-half pretending to be whole? Statistics tell us many important things about Wilkinson, not least the prolific nature of his goal-kicking and the self-sacrificial intensity of his defensive contribution. No stand-off in the history of the sport has bisected the sticks with greater regularity or tackled as frequently and heavily as this bloke. These virtues alone are enough to win matches.

There is, however, something of the laboratory in pure statistical measurement, and it is in the laboratory that Wilkinson's more vehement critics suspect he was created. Never the quickest – the years of injury post-2003 slowed him further – he plays by numbers, showing little aptitude for the "heads-up rugby" that defines the work of such maestros as Matt Giteau, Dan Carter and Juan Martin Hernandez. Can the England back line ever touch the symphonic heights with Wilkinson conducting from the rostrum? It is high time the management took a view.

Toby Flood

Should Martin Johnson suddenly feel the need to demote the incumbent to the replacements' bench, the role will pass in the first instance to a second, wholly less predictable product of the Newcastle playmaking academy. Flood has spent much of his career hand in glove with Wilkinson – only a fortnight ago, he was 12 to his 10 – but the two have so little in common stylistically, they might be playing different codes. Some, like the Lions coach Ian McGeechan, admit to being unsure what the younger man amounts to. Others see him as a blue touchpaper for the red-rose back division.

Flood is a handy enough goal-kicker, but his game most closely resembles that of the World Cup-winning Wallaby outside-half Stephen Larkham, who was constructed along similar lines: tall, lithe, deceptively strong. The subtlety of the Australian's passing left an impression on the Englishman (who was born, freakishly, in the same small corner of Surrey as Wilkinson) and like Larkham, he has the soft hands of a master distributor. Those who think he is too fragile to survive the rush-hour traffic in midfield should think again. Flood now plays for Leicester, where fragility is considered the deadliest of rugby sins.

Danny Cipriani

Oh Danny boy, what are we to do with you? The word in England circles is that Cipriani, patently the most gifted playmaking midfielder of this red-rose age, ruffled some feathers during his trip to Italy with the second- string Saxons squad earlier this month. Some say he was less than wholeheartedly supportive of the senior team as they played their Six Nations opener against Wales; others say he was given an embarrassingly low mark for his all-round contribution to the Saxons effort. Meanwhile, his friends and counsellors report that he has had his fill of English rugby for the time being, hence yesterday's confirmation of the move to Australia, which he considers to be just about far enough away.

Rumours persist of open hostilities between the Wasps stand-off and the England coaching staff during a training camp in Portugal last year and while Martin Johnson is more at ease with uppity little blighters than people imagine – he has been known to share holidays with Austin Healey, who could be difficult in the extreme – the manager does not easily forgive rank insubordination. Tears will be shed now Cipriani is heading for Melbourne: tears of sorrow among those who consider him a rare gem; tears of another kind among some of the England hierarchy.

Shane Geraghty

If there are those in Ireland who wonder why Geraghty attracts a level of publicity that might seem remarkable but for the circus surrounding Mr "Celebriani", they did not see anything like the best of him during last month's big set-to between Munster and Northampton. The rematch in April could see the half-Irish Englishman in very different fettle; indeed, he has it in him to kill Munster's interest in the Heineken Cup.

As a goal-kicker, he is not blessed with Howitzer range; however, he has a splinter of ice in his veins when it comes to landing the match-winning shot from anywhere inside 40 metres. He also has the wit, the imagination and the balls-out courage to attack from deep, bolstered by attacking antennae that give him an acute sense of the possibilities of a situation as it unfolds. Like Cipriani, he finds it difficult to disguise his frustration with narrowly focused, playbook-driven rugby; unlike Cipriani, he never leaves himself open to any questioning of his desire.

Picked by England at inside centre last autumn, his southern hemisphere-style "five-eighths" partnership with Wilkinson amounted to five-eighths of nothing much. Now, the coaching team see him as an outside-half, pure and simple. One day, he will have his opportunity.

Charlie Hodgson

"Charlie Hodgson was sublime." So said Kingsley Jones, the director of rugby at Sale, after last weekend's Premiership match at Wasps, and if the loquacious Welshman occasionally slips into Dylan Thomas mode a little too readily, he is hardly the first good judge to be bowled over by one of Hodgson's minor midfield masterpieces. By common consent, he is once again the form outside-half in England. Once again, you can hear the hierarchy muttering: "Brilliant, yes, but we can't pick him."

Rugby loses something when no amount of attacking artistry can compensate for a player's defensive fragility. Had Hodgson been marginally better equipped in the muscle department, he might have won more caps than Wilkinson. Instead, he is the English version of Arwel Thomas, the captivatingly brilliant ball-player from Neath whose inability to smash seven bells – or even one bell – out of his nearest opponent rendered him surplus to international requirements. It will take an odd set of circumstances to push Hodgson back into Test reckoning: his failures on the tackle front in New Zealand in 2008 cooked his goose. But he remains a box-office player, and if there really is a God up there, maybe he'll be given one last chance.

Alex Goode

Goode is spending the current Premiership campaign behind the lines at full-back. But Saracens see him as their long-term No 10 – he is expected to move upfield next season – and by giving him regular tastes of grown-up action now, they have pushed him to the head of a new generation of stand-offs, in front of Rob Miller of Newcastle, Rory Clegg of Harlequins and Freddie Burns of Gloucester.

Goode will have to deliver something sensational very quickly to push for a place in England's party for next year's World Cup, but 2015 is an obvious target. Born in Hertfordshire, he is the kind of natural games player – county-standard tennis, national schools athletics finals, time spent in the Ipswich Town football academy – who so often excels in the outside-half role. He can multi-task positionally, kick goals, tackle his weight and has a happy knack of extricating himself from difficult situations, frequently of his own making. As Brendan Venter, his director of rugby at Vicarage Road, has been heard to say: "What's not to like?"