THE Buddhist hitman is back. The gently spoken, cold-eyed kicker has entranced France. In the autumn of his career Jonny Wilkinson has found some calm on the Mediterranean with Toulon without losing the tenacity of his tackling.

The finality of the hits from the early years may be missing but so it should be in these supposedly salad days. Any attempt to repeat the psychotic relish with which he once flattened forwards would surely signal the end for a man who has pushed his body and mind beyond the limit through his career as rugby’s model professional.

French Jonny is neither the player whose career peaked between 2000 and 2003, nor the one whose reputation maintained him when the combination of injuries, loss of form and occasionally extravagant flights of fancy from 2004-2008 diminished his game until all that was left of the old Wilkinson was his name, aura and ability to kick those pressure kicks (no bad weapon for a last stand).

The killer gift of the drop-kick, the unerring penalties and conversions isn’t such a bad husk but there is not the depth of foundations from which a great team can rise. Sadly for England, the coaches who followed Clive Woodward lacked the courage to admit as much. Not until Brian Ashton ditched Wilkinson after an ineffectual display of game management against Scotland last year did reality strike. Danny Cipriani’s dazzling first 80 minutes as an international fly-half compounded the crisis for England’s steadiest boot.

Suddenly we heretics were joined by the majority who proclaimed the new king. In the process, a great deal of damage was done to Wilkinson’s reputation.

Even today, as he plays consistently well, many observers argue he was simply a great kicker through his prime from 2000-2003. This was the Golden Age of Jonny the Ten, maturing from his precocious international childhood, which began in Brisbane with a 76-0 hammering by Australia on his first start in 1998 and ended with a dominating performance in the 27-22 victory away to South Africa in 2000. He kicked all England’s points that day but it was his control that lingered.

Wilkinson had arrived at the summit and stayed there for three years (albeit he nearly fell off it when the pressure of the World Cup got to him before his brutal dismantling of France in the rain and that drop goal in the final).

Many have forgotten the way he shaped so much of England’s attacking game while they ran up an unprecedented sequence against the southern hemisphere teams in his and England’s vintage. His 2002 performance against the All Blacks, with its solo try, some of the subtlest distribution Twickenham has witnessed and the inevitable points haul was better than anything seen from or even conceived by another English fly-half.

Only Dan Carter’s second Test destruction of the Lions surpassed that level of excellence. Ironically, Wilkinson was Carter’s opponent that day. The Kiwi shrugged off his tackles and ushered in the era of Carter — although until he guides New Zealand to the World Cup it will not eclipse Wilkinson’s Golden Years.

By 2005 Wilkinson was a shadow of his old self but it did not prevent Woodward jamming him into the Lions Test team. Neither did it stop Andy Robinson making him England captain although the shoulder, the knee and the haematoma in the upper right arm were taking their toll.

Wilkinson was missing from the action in which he thrived and strange things happened in his mind. The reliability of the goalkicking masked the confusion of his game, something his acolytes refused to see. He started to wander away from the fly-half position, either into the breakdowns, where he always loved the crash and bash, or bizarrely on to the wide flanks, where his precious boot and exquisite passing skills were wasted.

In deep or out wide, both positions were anything but ideal for the fly-half. England’s midfield suffered as he developed a stuttering break that rarely fooled opponents and made the timing of teammates’ runs outside him almost impossible.

The flaws were overwhelming, but so too was his accuracy and there was no doubt that however Wilkinson performed in the Gallic autumn of his career, Martin Johnson would keep the faith.

Wilkinson’s continued fitness this season could have been dreadful for the long-term development of England if he was drifting in and out of games as he had for England since 2003. The good news is that he has redefined himself. He is not charging into the contact area; instead, Toulon play around him. His tactical kicking is much better than it has been since the early days, perhaps because he is positioning himself as most fly-halves do rather than shrugging off the effects of the last breakdown battering.

His alignment is more positive, too. He is standing flatter on attacking possession and streaming accurate, quick passes off either hand, reminiscent of 2001. The one negative is that the stutter has not been eradicated. If he can cut out the mostly ineffectual fancy footwork, England will have a fly-half to unleash the backs as well as kick the goals. The lofty heights of his great days are unlikely to be repeated but his time in France has him travelling in the right direction. The 2009 Model J Wilkinson is purring smoothly.

Obolensky Lecture

This year's Prince Obolensky Lecture will be delivered by His Honour Judge Jeff Blackett, the Rugby Football Union's disciplinary officer and advocate general of the armed forces.

The lecture, jointly hosted by The Sunday Times and the UK Parliament All-Party Rugby Union Group, is an annual platform in which key figures offer challenging and provoking perspectives on the future of rugby and its place in sport in the UK and the world. Previous speakers have included Sir Clive Woodward, Lawrence Dallaglio and RFU chairman Francis Baron.

Judge Blackett has presided over rugby’s most turbulent summer – from Bathgate to Bloodgate and beyond. He will deliver his lecture on ‘rugby’s moral compass - at home and abroad’ and answer questions from an audience drawn from Westminster and the world of rugby, together with a panel of leading sports writers from The Sunday Times.

Sunday Times readers wishing to attend the lecture on Tuesday, November 10 at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London from 7pm can write to sportletters@sunday-times.co.uk giving their name, address and daytime telephone number. The applications will be chosen by ballot.