For a player as attentive to detail as Jonny Wilkinson, playing rugby under a roof can cause problems, as well as solve them.
The clear roof of Otago Stadium means that England will not face wind or rain when it opens its Rugby World Cup campaign against Argentina on Saturday, but Wilkinson sees only unusual conditions to deal with as he prepares his kicking game.
The famously obsessive Wilkinson is renowned for his countless hours of solo kicking practice, but has never struck the ball in a stadium quite like this one.
Photo: AFP
The 30,000-seat Otago Stadium looks like a traditional rectangular ground except that it is completely enclosed in clear plastic.
“It is such a difference, such a one-off, that it becomes the variable,” Wilkinson said on Tuesday. “It affects the ball, it affects the strike, it affects the noise, the compression of the ball, the flight. There is so much to take into account. It is interesting: Sterile conditions become the variable.”
Wilkinson, who is likely to start at flyhalf against the Pumas after wresting the No. 10 jersey back from Toby Flood, saw enough on his first visit to the ground to know that it is different even to Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium and its retractable roof.
“It is a different environment,” Wilkinson said. “Different balls, different temperature under the roof, different condensation, different number of people in there, different space under the roof, different volume of air. It is all in there. Thankfully this stuff doesn’t go through your head when you are trying to kick the ball.”
Wilkinson was to work through it all yesterday, which he said was to be his first chance to actually kick the ball at the ground.
“It’s covered like a big greenhouse,” England’s assistant coach Graham Rowntree said. “It holds 30,000, but it feels bigger. It’s a great surface. Playing inside, there’s no conditions to affect what you do and the noise will be like the Millennium [Stadium] with that roof shut. We’re looking forward to it.”
A former England prop, Rowntree made the 10th of his 54 England appearances against Argentina at the 1995 World Cup, so is well-placed to advise Andrew Sheridan, Dylan Hartley and Dan Cole about what to expect from an always physical side.
“Are they [Argentina] the best in the business? Well, we’ll see in this competition,” Rowntree said. “They’re always a handful as a nation. That philosophy on scrummaging is to be respected, but we like scrummaging as well. It’s always a very hard, physical encounter against them and I don’t think that will ever change.”
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