Jonny: I'm under pressure

"I want to get out there and have people understand that what I'm about is playing rugby.

"I've got big games coming up and they're all that matter to me I think it will be a relief just to get back on the pitch for a match. I do want it to be a good game."

Wilkinson had been expected to make his comeback for his Newcastle club on Saturday but was sidelined by the shoulder injury which doctors believe he was carrying during the final.

It has not stopped his legendary slavish kicking practice, though, and he says he is hoping to be given the all-clear to play in a fortnight.

"I'm looking forward just to having something out there you can concentrate on," he said. "At the moment, I'm just sort of drifting along.

"I'm doing all my practice and really enjoying it but on match days when I'm not playing and all these people are cheering me because of the World Cup, I'm saying 'Well hold on, wait until I've played a game again and then decide whether you still want to cheer me'."

It was also another night of triumph for Wilkinson's colleagues as his captain Martin Johnson finished runnerup, the rugby squad won the BBC's team of the year award and Clive Woodward was voted coach of the year.

Last year's winner, world record marathon runner Paula Radcliffe, finished third in the poll and tennis star Martina Navratilova won the lifetime achievement award.

Sir Steve Redgrave, who won the public poll to find the Golden Personality as the most outstanding winner in the 50-year history of the awards, paid tribute to the way Wilkinson is handling his new-found fame.

"I still don't think I could cope with the new celebrity after coming home following my fifth Olympic gold at the age of 38.

"Jonny's only 24 and I don't think I'd have been able to cope with it as well as he does at his age."

Campese, who was part of the Australian side that beat England in the 1991 World Cup final, was a constant critic of Woodward's team before its triumph. The idea for the charity walk came from bookmaker Ladbrokes which polled rugby fans to see what forfeit they would like Campese to take up if England won the tournament.