England manager Martin Johnson has rounded on Jonny Wilkinson's critics, accusing the fly-half's detractors of having "their own agenda".
Wilkinson's position at stand-off came under scrutiny following England's lacklustre 17-12 Six Nations victory away to perennial wooden spoon contenders Italy on Sunday.
Goalkicking, which even Wilkinson's fiercest critics agree is the strongest part of his game, let the outside-half down with the No 10, who plays for French club Toulon, surprisingly missing three of his place kicks at the posts.
Former scrum-half Matt Dawson, who played alongside Wilkinson in the England team that won the 2003 World Cup, was scathing, telling Wednesday's Daily Mail: "What is missing in his repertoire is an ability to read the game, understand where England are playing and where they should be playing."
Johnson, England's 2003 World Cup winning captain, insisted no player was immune from being dropped but said the team as a whole had to take the blame for a deeply uninspiring display in Rome.
"I don't agree with the criticism," Johnson said on Wednesday.
"Jonny missed a few kicks and suddenly everyone is calling for his head, which I find pretty disappointing and surprising.
"No-one is undroppable, no-one ever has been. But is it Jonny's fault we didn't convert our line breaks? No, it's a team thing.
"It has become the vogue to have a pop at Jonny. It is not always right or fair and I think some people are using it for their own agenda but that is the world we live in."
The 30-year-old Wilkinson, Test rugby's record points scorer, has only twice been axed by England, for Paul Grayson at the 1999 World Cup and for the now out-of-favour Danny Cipriani during the 2008 Six Nations.
But Johnson's decision to release back-up fly-half Toby Flood, the only unused replacement against Italy, for club duty with Leicester this weekend, does not suggest England are contemplating a change at fly-half.
Wilkinson, capped 75 times by England, has arguably the best defence of any fly-half to have played international rugby and Johnson said players had to be looked at in the round.
"You have players who are not in the team who are potentially better at some areas of the game than guys that are in the team.
You have to weigh up that overall impact," Johnson added.
"I think Toby has been playing well. We are lucky to have two world-class players at 10."
England, for all they talked about playing an attacking game against Italy, found themselves repeatedly drawn into dead-end kicking exchanges.
"This match highlighted again that he (Wilkinson) is not comfortable with the responsibility of being the team's playmaker," Dawson wrote.
"He can play in the way that has been planned on a flip chart in team meetings but if it comes down to him to work out on the hoof what options to take, more often than not he will kick and miss opportunities to attack.
"Jonny needs players around him, guys like Mike Catt, Will Greenwood, myself or Kyran Bracken, to take decisions, then he will execute them brilliantly."
Wilkinson has made clear how much he values having an experienced player near him to direct operations and when Johnson was England captain always deflected any praise that came his way towards the likes of Greenwood and Catt.
Now Johnson has told scrum-half Danny Care and inside centre Riki Flutey to help shoulder the creative burden.
"We are not playing in isolation out there and that is something we will stress," said Johnson.
"Danny Care is improving all the time in that position and Riki was back for his first game at this level in six or seven months.
"We can only get better there."
Meanwhile the England management sent a number of players back to their clubs on Wednesday so that they could be available for their clubs to play in the Guinness Premiership this weekend.
Steffon Armitage (London Irish)
Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints)
Matt Banahan (Bath Rugby)
Jordan Crane (Leicester Tigers)
Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers)
Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)
Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)
Shontayne Hape (Bath Rugby)
Dan Hipkiss (Leicester Tigers)
Paul Hodgson (London Irish)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)
Dan Ward-Smith (London Wasps)
David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
