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It Was A Mistake To Drop Wilkinson, Says Bates
Thursday 13 March 2008 at 11:14  England rugby coach Brian Ashton was wrong to take Jonny Wilkinson out of the national squad before they are due to play their Six Nations match against Ireland this weekend.
That is according to Steve Bates, manager of the Newcastle Falcons, who believes that Wilkinson's absence will have a very detrimental affect on the team's performance.
Bates thinks that the fly half was wrongfully blamed for England's 15-9 defeat at the hands of Scotland on Saturday (March 8th), despite the fact he has now become the world-record points scorer in the game of rugby.
England are currently 4/9 favourites with Ladbrokes to win on Saturday but Wales are tipped to lift the Six Nations trophy, at 1/16 with William Hill.
Speaking to the BBC, Bates said: "I was very surprised he was left out. It is a ridiculous decision in terms of the performance of the team as a whole."
However, he believes that Wilkinson will not be too dejected by Ashton's decision and will come back stronger than ever.
"He will bounce back and be incredibly positive and want to play," he added.
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