YOU wouldn't catch Jonny Wilkinson down on the Quayside behaving in a disorderly fashion. He knows it wouldn't help to maximise his talent.

It's nothing to do with preserving a squeaky clean image and being the perfect role model for schoolboys. What Jonny cares about is becoming as good an all-round rugby player as he possibly can.

You can argue that the single-minded pursuit of perfection does not produce a rounded human being, but it's far preferable to the slide into debauchery on which some young £20,000-a-week footballers embark. How rounded are they?

Wilkinson is still only 22 and on Saturday he produced the finest performance by an England fly half anyone can remember.

We all knew the stories about him practising his goal-kicking on Christmas morning, and how he had become an unbelievably ferocious tackler for a little lad. But now we suddenly discover he has been working overtime on building his pace and developing his side-step because he wants to be the complete package.

The previous week his tactical kicking had won the game for Newcastle in atrocious conditions at Leeds, but on Saturday it was his mesmeric running with the ball which flummoxed the Irish.

All he needs to do now - like the rest of the team - is maintain that level of performance for 80 minutes. If England can do that they should be unstoppable in next year's World Cup.

HOW ironic that Wilkinson is being lauded at the same time as French whizzkid Thomas Castaignede is ready to begin his return after 18 months out through injury.

Five years ago Rob Andrew tried to sign Castaignede with a view to him being the Falcons' next fly half. Rob must be glad he failed.

He did succeed, however, in bringing in a trio of Scots who have given wonderful service to the Falcons in Gary Armstrong, Doddie Weir and George Graham.

It comes as no great surprise that they are returning to Scotland at the end of the season to help the new Borders team, as it gives them a chance to put something back into Scottish rugby at a time when they are being overtaken by the young bucks at Newcastle.

But they will be missed as all three have been synonymous with success at Newcastle since helping the club win the Premiership at the first attempt in 1998. They have also been tremendous ambassadors for the club and will want to leave on a high with another Twickenham success in April.

THERE are a few fantasists in these parts dreaming of a Newcastle v Middlesbrough FA Cup final. But after both scrambled into the quarter-finals against ten men, and earned home draws, I suspect the luck is about to run out.

It could be argued that it started to run out for Newcastle when Kieron Dyer was injured again. They have continued to win, but it's in the next few games that they will really miss him.

A run of Sunderland (away), Arsenal (home), Liverpool (away) and Arsenal (home) will make or break their season. If they won two of the three League games and dumped Arsenal out of the Cup they could start to dream of the double, with Dyer returning for a relatively simple run-in.

But it's a huge task and they will have to play a good deal better than on the occasion of Kevin Keegan's emotional return.

Whatever the season's eventual outcome, it must be doing wonders for productivity on Tyneside and while the Geordies will thank Bobby Robson for the current high they will never forget that it was Keegan who launched the recovery.

IT'S an interesting argument as to whether ice skating should be an Olympic sport, especially after the farcical judging row which led to both Canada and Russia being declared gold medal winners.

My view is that it's not a sport at all, but it is apparently so popular with TV viewers that without it the television companies would not pay the huge fees which sustain the Winter Olympics.

So we'd better stick with it. After all we wouldn't want to have been deprived of the re-run on ice of the 1967 Grand National. You know, the one where the rest fell down and Foinavon came from miles back to win.

JUST when it was beginning to seem Paul Collingwood's place in the World Cup squad was not secure after a run of low scores, he weighed in with a match-winning spell of four wickets.

That's something he has never done for Durham, for whom his best one-day figures are three for 21, so there'll be high expectations back at the Riverside on his return.

Collingwood now has three Man of the Match awards from 16 one-day internationals, which speaks volumes for his character considering that the first few were a personal disaster. It's high time Durham began to explore his leadership credentials by making him vice-captain

Published: Friday, February 22, 2002