It's always the way with the British Press and the public: they build someone up and then knock him down. I always thought it was mistake to build a team around Wilkinson because of his limitations outside of kicking and his being injury prone. The last two coaches went for a big strong pack supplying the ball to Wilkinson's boot or winning him penalties. Analyse the points scored over the past four years and you'll see what I mean.

Sooner or later that was going to fail a tactic, let alone strategy and now we have another coach trying to find a solution. The answer was to have built on the success of 2003 and bring as many good young union players through as we could, so that in the next few years we would have a base to work from. It is not to import the Andy Farrells of this world and a Tongan/Kiwi from Rugby League. We were world champions and now we can't deal with a Welsh change of tactic. But then, their coach is a Kiwi, isn't he? Food for thought for future appointments>

David , Wolverhampton,

Why are the Welsh such a sad, sad bunch. Even when they beat England, which is not that offten they have to keep on. They make more noise over one win in twenty years, than England have done over the last twenty years of chricket scores.

Douglas, Aberdeen,

Congratulations to Wales. JW is not perfect. He has never said he was either. The media have hailed him as a saviour since he was 18. This guy has never put his hand up and taken the glory, yet he stands up to take the heat. We talk about weak links as if we are seasoned pros. The truth is that we are all pretty clueless as to what is going on in the heat of the battle. Even the likes of Stuart Barnes and others are mere eunichs in the harem. We act as if Charlie Hodgson has never choked for England and that Cipriani is an untouchable for Wasps. No one is more aware of the succession issue than Wilkinson. But at 28 years old, are we not being a little harsh on this living legend?

W James, London, UK

I find it compelling and sad that someone whose ethics are so strong and who obviously has nothing to prove anymore in his sport has to justify himself for his actions on the field. We are not talking about ballet dancing but about rugby, so unintenional moves can happen. So please, leave the man alone, and don't forget that he's not a machine with a golden boot, but a human being. Keep doing what you do Jonny Wilkinson and thank you for all the good rugby you give us. I'm sure there's plenty left.

Anne, Paris, France

england were lacking in adventure and focus the welsh boys clearly just wanted the victory more. england cracked under the first bit of pressure wales had produced in the entire game... france could prove to be a very long 80minutes unless things change. JW's swinging arm no-one will ever know other than him... but had JT knocked wilko out with a swinging arm i think we all know what the result would have been...

Robin, Swansea,

I think it's very sad that Jonny feels he has to justify himself. There can be no doubt that the Thomas incident was simply unfortunate. Yes, it was his arm, but to consider Wilko malicious is to consider David Beckham intelligent.
However, there can also be no doubt that England's 'very little influence' is something for which Jonny should take full responsibility. Without the likes of Dallaglio, Corry and Catt, Wilkinson should be stepping up to fulfill a major leadership role, preventing the kind of collapse witnessed against Wales. Meanwhile, his control of the game, at least at present, looks amateurish in comparison to a Hodgson, a Cipriani or a Geraghty. Even his goal-kicking isn't what it used to be.
For years Wilko has had either Mike Catt or Will Greenwood outside him as a comfort blanket. I hope he will learn to live without his blankie. But if he can't, he's just going to step aside.

Dale, Repton, Derbyshire

Quod licet iovi non licet bovi.

It's as simple as that.

Joe A. Rechsteiner, St. Gallen, Switzerland

Ok. Thomas was hit by a swinging arm. Was it deliberate - absolutely not. Surely this makes even the discussion of a ban ridiculous. Jonny, I admire the fact that you have always prided yourself on fair play. I think it is unfortunate that yet again you find yourself in the so called spotlight. Sure it's the nature of the fly half position. You seem to be in the spotlight far more than any other fly half. You handle this amazingly - epsecially since you are targeted so much! Let's face it - you set up that try. Take the positives into the next games.

Leslie, London,

Someone made the point that what if JW had been on the end of the so called "swinging arm" ....... well he has been constantly ever since teams worked out that to stop England a good place to start is to stop Johnny if he is playing.

I'd ask this question " If it was any other England player who had made that tackle would everyone still be bleating about it?".

Connors, HIllingdon, England

I'm afraid that it is this simple. JW's arm was swinging. It made contact with a player's head. It knocked him out. That is the set of dangerous circumtances which the rule is designed to eliminate, whoever delivers the blow. We are all well aware that our arms much wrap around the player not strike at him.

Peter Stanbury, Birmingham, UK

Its sad to see that Jonny has to explain to us what decisions he made because we can't accept that he plays the game better than we think. He plays with his own style as does every other player in the team, and he makes the decisions he thinks are right on the spot. That takes somthing to be under that amount of pressure and still be able to play sucessfully!
Over all wether he makes the right decisions or not, he is still a great player!

Emily, Great Malvern, England

There were two instances of illegal use of the swinging arm at the weekend's six nations. This is a cheap shot and a cowardly act. One was Wilkinson's and the other Darcy where he broke his arm. It is something that has come into the game recently and needs to be stamped out of the game at all levels.

Emma Thomas, Bangor, Wales

Thank you Jonny, you gave us your best, none can do better than that! "Couch critics" are just that. Forget this poor day at the office, it's gone. The same applys to the critics.

raffael, Perth , Scotland

First point we saw two instances of the illegal use of the swinging arm which has crept into the game which is a deliberate act of cowardice foul play and needs to be stamped out. One was delivered by Wilkinson and the other from Darcy where he cracked his elbow/wrist.
Second point when Wales kicked to England they coped easily but when Wales ran at England they struggled. Same applied in the Scottish game when France ran at the Scots their giant pack could not cope.

Daniel, Bangor, Wales

One who has never made a error while playing rugby, never played for real...
Myself, poor feminine player, I made a few swinging arms. Never intentional. For the culture, in french, we call it "cravate" which means "tie" ;o)
Now, such an error has to be punished with a yellow card, or at leat a penalty.
I aggree with Wilko when he says "a rugby victory is a 15-man victory, and it's a 15-man game when we lose". We defend rugby for being a collective game... What I saw the week end was a collective failure. Many players (including him) didn't play their best.
Now, I won't say I am not pleased with the results of this first week.
Allez les bleus :D

Hélène, Paris, France

On the tackle: It was an accident, Jonny wasn't looking in that direction and shouldn't be punished. Little man on big man. It was an unfortunate 'rugby incident'.

On the game: Jonny, you are not playing well. You haven't been at your best since Scotland last year (your first game back) and currently you are lucky to have your place. You aren't playing flat, you aren't kicking well and you aren't releasing your backs.

Maybe it's the length of time you had out, but at present things are just not turning out your way. There is no doubt that with the amount of ball you had you should have been able to kick for territory and save the game, especially with such a lead.

But you didn't. You simply can't blame anyone else. Sorry.

David, St Albans, UK

It would be interesting to hear the views of all those who said the tackle was OK if it had been JW on the receiving end. It was a swinging arm - if there is no citing then it says it is OK for everyone else to do the same which is definately not in the interest of the game.

Paul Chmielewski, Hungerford,

You never have nor ever will create a try like James Hook did
on Saturday.
You have been given an armchair ride behind great forwards.
I doubt you would have been held in such high esteem if you were kicking all your kicks under pressure like Neil Jenkins had to when he played for Wales.

A.James, Cardiff, Wales

Thomas head got stamped on after the tackle which i think is what ended him for the game - the tackle wasn't a good one - but thats rugby

ODP, Cardiff, Wales

I don't think anyone is saying that JW deliberately made a bad tackle on Thomas. However, the video show that Thomas was out for the count directly after the Wilkinson forearm and before anyone else got to him.

Still, accidental or not, if it had been anyone else, there would have been a yellow card.

Richard Anthony, London,

Jonny, you need to lok and think again about the tackle. Thomas was unconscious before he hit the ground, as you can clearly tell from the video, and it was your arm that did it. Having said that, it also has to be stated that it's completely inconceivable that you did it deliberately.

Jacques Francis, Westcott, Surrey, UK

It's sad that Jonny feels like he has to justify his decisions and actions! He shouldn't need to defend himself, he had an off game or moment or whatever, it isn't a crime, and he will bounce back :).

Gemma, Newcastle, England

I am an england fan and was gutted by the result, but I dont think enough credit is being to the welsh for coming back into the game after a disastrous first half. They showed character, resilience and fortitude.

Stop looking at who played badly for England and perhaps start praising the welsh for making england look so bad.

paul evans, exeter, devon

Do not listen to the negative comments JW!!! I find hard to believe that fans can be so fickle clearly they have never had a bad day at the office or thrown the odd bad pass!! they seem to forget your unflappable contributions down the years!!

How fickle some ppl are!!

N, Didcot,

If you're running in for a tackle your arm is going to have a certain amount of swing in it from sheer momentum. Jonny was certainly not throwing a punch, and it did not look as though the movement of the arm added significantly to the force of the tackle.
In the rules that I have just looked up on the IRB site it refers to "stiff" arm tackles, but I find no mention of swinging arms except in the description of some of the referee's signals.
Arguably it was a high tackle, but only because Jonathan Thomas was ducking so much. To my mind the accident was just that, and nobody's fault.

Malcolm, Reading,

To coin a cliche "class is permanent, form is temporary". Jonny is class, through and through. He's got one of the best brains on the field backed up with the physical talent to match it. He may have a dip in form for many reasons, and to be honest this it the first time I've seen him have anything like an average game. You don't start dropping world class players because they have an off day. As a South African I've seen too much of that and it took the courage of Jake White to put a stop to it - with well known consequences!

Robbie, Pretoria, South Africa

Hi, JW was quite correct in one respect, he thought there was a mismatch on his outside.Bang on. Unfortunately there was a similar mismatsh on his inside. Wales were superior in one major respect ,their backs were organised and had structure and comkposure onn the ball.England's only back moves that appeared successfiul were unstructured broken-field runs after misplaced passes or dropped balls.
Frank Bradley

Frank bradley, Calne, Wilts

Wilkinson is a wonderful player of undoubted ability and talent. He is man enough to say that his second half performance was below what is expected from an experienced international. He should also be man enough to take the responsibility for his swinging right arm, which directly led to Jonathan Thomas' injury.. Could it be that taking responsibility for a below standard second half performance helps selection against Italy, but taking resposibilty for knocking somebody out knocks him out of contention for selection?

Michael Turvey, Christchurch, England

Its typical that two people living in England (Williams & Fletcher) are the first to make comment on the Wilkinson tackle. We are always too quick too criticise our own!!

I bet you cant remember Wilkinson making another tackle which was anything less than hard and fair, in all of his career.

Give the lad a break, by the way he plays you know he wouldnt have set about that tackle on purpose. And at least he has the guts to write about it on here.

Wilkinson is a shining example of how the game should be played. You know it, i know it and everybody else knows it.

Eddy Jennings, Liverpool, England

Jonny Wilkinson is one of the hardest and most effective outside-half tacklers the game has ever seen. He is (as he states) also one of the fairest ever to play the game.
Was his right arm 'swinging'? Yes. But take a look at the tackle methodology and you'll understand that, to tackle someone with the size and forward momentum of Jonathan Thomas, you have to use a good deal of force or you'll just be run over. That means, from the tackler's point of view, that you have to 'wrap the guy up' which means getting your fee arm around him. No injury would have resulted if Jonathan hadn't been dropping his shoulder at the time of impact.
Rugby is a dynamic, fast-moving game and injuries happen - just ask how Mike Tindall ended up with a bruised liver.
There are people playing the game who go looking to take people out - the straight-arm of Alix Popham in the picture above this article probably has more malice in it than Jonny's tackle...

Tim, Auckland, New Zealand

Well said Jonny, you've never taken the credit for top England performances and neither should you have to shoulder the blame for a poor performance.

For mine, you represent skill and decency mixed with hard play on the rugby field, with no intention of dirty play. (And you've copped plenty of that over the years) A great combination. One that many others could learn from. Everyone has a bad game.

So get over it you wingeing pack of poms, Wales stepped up and pressured. Its hard to deal with as Australia found out in France last year. They were beaten by a lesser team too.

most important question is: where were Tait and Lewsey??? two of Englands best players at RWC2007.

and three cheers for the Volcano.

pommie in perth, Perth, Australia

Rugby is a man’s game – these things happen week in week out. JW did not intentionally knock the guy out. As I have said Rugby is a man’s game – let’s move on.

Piers Thompson, Notting Hill, London, UK

There's nothing like a bit of humility in defeat, especially when you get turned over by a side that showed more character over the full 80 minutes. The pass that went astray was more a symptom of the pressure caused by England having to play their game away from their usual forward dominated style. The game changed when Henson broke the line early in the second half: this seemed to give Wales a second wind and from then on your confidence went.

As fo the other incident above, let's face it JW, you've been tackling like that for sometime now to protect your shoulder. If JT had done the same to you the Twickenham crowd would have been baying for him to have been given the same treatment as William Wallace received in London.

Apart from the Wales win, the only other reason that this match will be kept on the records is for the most dubious refereeing of the breakdown and off-side I have ever seen.

Steve Bright, Carmarthen, Wales

First of all, I am Welsh, so my view is not tinged by the defeat, nor inflated by the victory. (We've lost to often for that).
I believe Jonny Wilkinson is still one of the outstanding Fly halfs in World Rugby.
Players are analysed, targetted and hit hard. In the first half the Welsh were pressured and dis-organised, because England did not allow them space or time.
In the second half the reverse was true.
To pillory JW for a couple of missed passes and mistakes is negative.
The 22 (minus 4 injured) have to stand up and look at how they failed to defend as a fifteen.
As for Jonathan Thomas, I agree there was no intent to injure, but, the tackle was in the head and watching the replay, it was a swinging arm, and JT was stunned by the blow. An equivelant yellow card would have sufficed, but, the Ref was unsighted. He (JW) should NOT be banned for even one game.
That match is over. Italy awaits.

Retired prop, Burnham-on-sea, Somerset

I've never heard such drivvle. It's insulting that he feels he needs to talk us through his thoughts leading up to his mistakes. Any club No 10 worth his salt throws in the type of pass (a wiper) that he made such a mess of, week in week out without them being as badly directed as his. However you miss the point Jonny, it's not the odd glaring mistake you made, or anyone else for that matter, it's the fact that when we needed you the most, you went AWOL, compounded by the fact that your halfback partner did too. Try talkiing yourself out of that. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that Wilkinson was a great player, is still good, but it's time for a change. Play Cipriani next week and put Wilkinson on the bench, if it's not going well for the young lad bring on Jonny.

Andy, Cheltenham,

Stop your whining about "that tackle", Wilkinson is not a tall man and has never been accused of dirty play before. Its all very well to watch a replay over and over again in slow motion and see intent, but his arms were open, therefore it wasnt a body check, and Thomas is far taller than Wilkinson so he would have had to dip into the tackle which the slow motion replays illustrate.

So Wilkinson went for a hard, standard tackle and Thomas ducked into an arm, tough for him absolutely. But deliberate, get over yourselves, I dont think so.

Wilkinson has been targeted for years by forwards hoping to put him off, he is hit high and late in match after match and he hasnt whined once and i havent seen Welsh supporters shouting at their players not to hit him so pull out a hanky and get over it.

p phillips, london,

'Saint 'Jonny may indeed feel that it was not his tackle that led to Jonathon Thomas' injury, but the fact of the matter is that his swinging arm (which is by definition illegal and dangerous enough to warrant at least an on the spot sin-binning) led to his injury. Watch the game again Jonny and you will notice that Jonathon Thomas was out cold before he hit the floor. Why? Due to your swinigng arm.

D Williams, Tunbridge Wells, UK

Perhaps Jonny hasn't seen the video yet! Jonathan Thomas was driving forward until he met the Wilko right arm and he was unconscious before he hit the ground. Was it the Wilkinson aura that floored him and not the arm, then?

Roger Fletcher, Oxford, UK