Charisma

On the eve of taking on Wales at Twickenham on the first weekend of 2008's 6 Nations championship, England's inspirational Johnny Wilkinson has controversially called for tries to be banned from rugby.

"I think it's only fair", said Wilkinson. "You've got to reward the sides that make rugby worth watching, the teams that score mainly drop-goals and penalties and barely pass the ball."

England's captain Phil Vickery backed up his teammate: "Southern hemisphere teams like New Zealand and South Africa are ruining the game with their almost total reliance on tries and running rugby. I don't think British and European fans want to see energetic, free-flowing rugby at the expense of the good old-fashioned, stop-start, kick, lineout, kick, maul, kick, scrum, kick game".

"The current scoring system means less talented teams, like the Welsh 2005 Grand Slam winners, who did practically nothing except run in tries were rewarded with more points than skilful guys who expressed themselves with a whole varied repertoire of kicks. We were kicking to touch, kicking penalities and kicking drop goals yet we still didn't win. It was so frustrating that I felt like kicking myself. Something's got to give, or it'll be the end of rugby as we know it."