JONNY SEXTON WILL come up against rugby idol Jonny Wilkinson for the final time tomorrow after both players were named to start for their Top 14 teams.
Sexton will be partnered by Maxime Machenaud in the Racing Métro half-back pairing against Toulon. The Heineken Cup champions named Wilkinson at 10 this evening. He will start beside scrum-half Michael Claasens.
Welsh scrum-half Mike Phillips starts on the bench for Racing but compatriot Jamie Roberts gets the start at outside centre. Names of ominous note in the Toulon side include Australia duo Matt Giteau and Maxime Mermoz, Matt Giteau and South African lock Bakkies Botha.
The match was originally slated for Stade de France but Racing chiefs changed the fixture to the less imposing Stade Yves du Manoir as a punishment for the Parisian side’s poor European form.
The two sides met in August in the south of France and Wilkinson was to the fore in a 41-14 home win. The English outhalf played a key role in three of his team’s five tries and kicked 16 points as his Irish counterpart endured a miserable night.
Toulon are third in the Top 14 at present and bounced back from a 23-0 defeat to Stade Francais, before the Heineken Cup break, to dismiss Montpellier 43-10 at the Stade Mayol. Racing are down in eigth and looking for a first league win since 30 November when they defeated Montpellier 17-12.
Speaking earlier this year, before the Lions Tour, Sexton expressed his dismay that Wilkinson chose to sit out the end-of-season Test Series against Australia. “I would have liked him to go and would have loved to have learnt from him, he is a bit of a legend,” said Sexton. “I obviously looked up to him when I was 16 and he was winning the World Cup with England.”
Sexton and Wilkinson first met on Test match duty in February 2010 when Ireland beat their hosts 20-16 at Twickenham. The Dubliner was on the winning side again, a year later, as England came to Lansdowne Road in search of a Grand Slam but were hammered 24-8. English revenge came in the form of a World Cup warm-up win at the same venue in august 2011.
Wilkinson is expected to announce his retirement from rugby at the end of the season. He has hinted about potential coaching roles but insists he will take a short break away from the game beforehand.
Elsewhere in the Top 14, Irish players James Hart and Andrew Farley have both been named in the Grenoble side to face Top 14 champions Castres.
