Wilkinson says change of club should change luck

Overlooked by the Lions after another injury-plagued season, Jonny Wilkinson is confident that his move to French club Toulon after 12 years with Newcastle Falcons will bring him a change of luck and a return to the England team.

Wilkinson's transfer to Toulon on a two-year deal was announced on Monday and the flyhalf who kicked England to its World Cup triumph in 2003 believes his move will kickstart a career which has been stop-start since the day of the final in Sydney when his extra time drop goal beat Australia.

"I hope that this will be the springboard to what I see as another five years in my career," said the 29-year-old flyhalf, who has had to shake off longterm injuries to his shoulder, neck and knees as well as appendicitis and a lacerated kidney.

"I hope it will give me the games to rebuild an international career too. I haven't played, for obvious reasons, so I haven't figured for England and I want that to change. And, because I haven't had the games, I have just seen a Lions tour slip by."

The British and Irish Lions are headed for South Africa at the end of this month for a three-test tour and Wilkinson will have to watch rather than play.

"No one can possibly relate my long cycle and unlucky and unconnected injuries to the fact that I was playing for Newcastle Falcons," he wrote in his column in The Times.

"But I feel I have to give myself a new environment and a new start. I could not forgive myself if I didn't try everything to get myself out playing regularly again."

Wilkinson is currently recovering from a dislocated knee and last week went to the United States to check out the training camps of the Denver Broncos and the American Olympic team in Colorado Springs.

Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal admitted signing Wilkinson, who has a clause in his contract to leave after a year, was a risk because of his injury problems.

"If it doesn't work out, it will have been a moment of folly," Boudjellal said in Tuesday's edition of sports daily L'Equipe. "But who has not fantasized about the rugby player Wilkinson, a great among the greats, an extraterrestrial?"

Toulon coach Philippe Saint-Andre said Wilkinson was determined to be fit when the new Top 14 season starts on the weekend of August 15-16.

"He is going to have medical test to ensure that he will be 100 percent ready at the start of the season," Saint-Andre told L'Equipe.