ALMOST a year after the World Cup final, fame continues to pursue Jonny Wilkinson whether he courts it or not, or indeed whether he plays rugby or not.

It occurred to me when watching Newcastle Falcons chalk up a second successive win in the top level of European competition last Sunday - both achieved without the world's most famous rugby player - that playing-wise they don't need him.

This is a big dilemma, not least for Jonny, who would detest the notion of his mates struggling to adapt to a having a superstar in their midst. If he thought it were true he would probably rather have fluffed that drop kick in Sydney.

For any team harbouring a superstar there is always the danger of relying too heavily on him. In cricket it can be a real problem because if he fails the team fails, whereas in the Falcons' previous home games this season it has been more a case of Jonny being slightly off-key and the team misfiring.

They were undoubtedly better against Perpignan, and with Matt Burke and Dave Walder in the team they certainly don't need to worry about the goal-kicking.

Jonny will always be a marvellous ambassador, and his very association with the club is bound to generate interest. The club are so keen to keep him happy that they even have his brother on the playing staff.

Although he is now captain of England and has new goals, it is likely that Jonny's career peaked in that split second it took his boot to make contact with the ball which sailed so memorably between those Sydney posts. Ideally he would like to be out practising all day every day to make sure that if the situation arises again he will not miss.

But there are now huge distractions such as the day last week when he went to the Palace to be upgraded from MBE to OBE, then nipped across London for a five-hour photo-shoot with Hackett, then attended the company's 21st birthday party in the evening.

He has been sponsored by Hackett, the upmarket gents' outfitters, since 2002 and while turning down Marks and Spencer because of the clash of interests he now also endorses adidas and Lucozade, and heads the cholesterol reduction campaign for Boots.

He also has a book out (My World), in which he makes it clear that he resents his loss of privacy. For that he deserves sympathy. It is the price of being elevated to iconic status in this fragile society, and there aren't many who can live with that status and maintain the standards which projected them there.

SOMEONE else with a book out is Stan Collymore, who presumably has some rather more lurid tales to tell than Jonny Wilkinson. Perhaps Stan thinks that making accusations of racism and violence against Bath rugby players will grab headlines and help to sell the book, and obviously we haven't heard the last of whatever shenanigans took place in Dublin last weekend. But why should anyone believe a word - whether spoken or in print - which emerges from such a discredited person as Collymore?

YET another man with a book out (is Christmas coming up?) is world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who reveals that he used steroids when still an amateur in the Ukraine in 1996. He was thrown out of the Olympic team and replaced by his brother, Wladimir, who won the gold in Atlanta.

It's too long ago to matter now, and at a time when we have drug stories surrounding Adrian Mutu, Warwickshire cricketer Graham Wagg and an Irish Olympic horse, one more isn't going to make us rush to the book shops.

TIM Henman has apparently been bleating overseas about the ignorance of the British media, then reacted with surprise when it was reported back home. Perhaps he thinks he doesn't get the credit he deserves considering he was recently suffering from a magnesium deficiency.

He should count himself lucky that the problem was so swiftly diagnosed and rectified, allowing him to mount a brief defence of his Paris Masters title prior to taking his place in the eight-man jamboree which will round off the season in Houston.

Unfortunately, even had he won in Paris we ignorant hacks would have been obliged to point out that five of the world's top ten were absent. As with the World Matchplay golf, the prizemoney means nothing to them any more.

Henman has scraped into the Masters Cup in Houston because Andre Agassi and David Nalbandian failed to challenge him for the last spot by withdrawing from the Paris event.

But Agassi might just be playing a shrewd hand as he is first reserve and knows that Roger Federer and Guillermo Coria might yet pull out through injury, in which case Agassi is better off resting his own hip problem this week.

If he plays in Houston and meets Henman, I know who my money will be on.

Published: 05/04/2004