NORTH-East rugby legend Jonny Wilkinson stepped up to receive his CBE on Tuesday - before dodging the question of who should be next England coach with a sidestep he would have been proud of if he had made it in his playing days.

Former Newcastle Falcon Wilkinson, 36, received his award at Buckingham Palace from the Duke of Cambridge, watched on by his proud parents and wife Shelley Jenkins.

He was among a host of other award recipients, who also included Peter Freitag from Darlington who received the MBE for services to the community.

The retired estate agent is a veteran Lib Dem party member who has held a number of senior roles in the North-East regional party.

The Northern Echo:

Peter Freitag after receiving his MBE

Wilkinson, meanwhile, refused to be drawn on who he felt should replace Stuart Lancaster, who was let go by the Rugby Football Union after England crashed out of their own World Cup at the group stages last month.

Wilkinson, whose last-gasp drop goal to beat Australia in the 2003 World Cup final is firmly lodged in sporting folklore, also laughed off any suggestions that he might have an eye on joining the England coaching set-up in the near future.

For England to be good enough to compete with the best rugby teams in the world it will need the players to have "a desire which is almost impossible to keep down", he said.

And to breach the gap between northern and southern hemisphere rugby requires "resetting the bar at all levels, from grass roots up", he said.

Wilkinson retired from playing rugby last year after leading his club, Toulon, to the double of European glory in the Heineken Cup and winning the French Top 14 final.

He now works as a specialist kicking coach at the club, mentoring Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny and Argentina's fly-half Nicolas Sanchez, as well as doing media work.

And while he is uncertain about his long-term future, he smiled at the idea of taking up a coaching position for his country, instead praising the efforts that went into the last World Cup campaign.

He said: "No, no. I have an enormous amount of respect and saw the guys throughout the World Cup and understood exactly what they were doing and how they were doing it and was really impressed by everything.

"What it does is it shows you just how tough that environment is, it shows you how many different components there are that need to fit together, work together and roll together...

"There is no-one better in place than the guys that did it right now."

Wilkinson, who retired from Test rugby in December 2011, said he had not really considered who should take over as head coach from Lancaster, saying: "I still look at it from a player's perspective. I don't see myself as a coach, I see myself as a player who doesn't play any more."

And while he felt it would be unfair to speculate on the suitability of overseas coaches he has never played under, he made it clear that standards need to be re-set, with a hunger and desire "almost impossible to keep down", for England to compete with the likes of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

He said: "It has to be addressed on a level that you just have to reset the bar, at all levels from grassroots up, I think.

"Just saying, 'these are the standards, these are the things we're going to work on, this is how we view the English game, this is what we want players to be able to do'.

"But that bar has to be high, and then you have got to ensure that the enjoyment that goes with it is even higher too, so that kids want to go out there and do it, so kids see this as normal.

"So, 'normal' for kids, and for players in the Premiership league, 'normal' becomes what we used to see as 'exceptional'.

"That is how you do it, and you breed that, but also you can't just ask people to be able to do that. They have got to want to be able to do it, which means they have got to enjoy it.

"You create that environment through good styles and standard of coaching through what you ask players to do, how you help them get there at all levels, and you bring them through as teams that want to work for each other."

For Wilkinson - famously obsessive with his approach to rugby - receiving his CBE from the Duke of Cambridge brought an "excited nervousness", a moment comparable to the butterflies he felt whenever he took to the pitch.

Now his playing days are over, he says he has found the peace that so often eluded him in his never-ending search for rugby perfection.

He said: "I have grown to understand that rugby is literally just a shirt that you wear during that period of your life, and you take it off and you realise that so much of that rugby journey was actually the underneath part - is the real you - and that competitive side and everything, it's making peace with that, and the rest of your life that carries on."