GREAT players don't always make great leaders but, in Jonny Wilkinson, England have found a worthy successor to World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson.

The Newcastle Falcons fly half spoke of "realising a dream" after being named as England's new skipper ahead of November Tests against Canada, South Africa and Australia.

And, while Wilkinson will bring different qualities to his belligerent but brilliant predecessor, there is no reason to believe that dream will turn into a nightmare.

It could do. England are not the same formidable force that won the World Cup last Autumn, and Wilkinson will have to wipe away the memories of a disappointing Six Nations campaign - under the short-term stewardship of Lawrence Dallaglio - and a disastrous summer tour of the Southern Hemisphere.

The 25-year-old is hardly in the best of shape himself after missing more than eight months because of a career-threatening neck and shoulder injury.

There were times during his rehabilitation that Wilkinson feared for his future, but it is exactly that sense of perspective that makes him the ideal person to lead England through their post-World Cup transition.

Wilkinson's extra-time drop goal made history in Sydney, but that is exactly what it is now - history.

It is gone, and a host of England's leading lights have gone with it. There will be no Johnson, no Dallaglio and no Sir Clive Woodward when England line up next month for a start.

The players that remain need to regain their form and their focus and, by drawing on his experiences from the last year, Wilkinson can make sure England approach the defence of their title in 2007 with the requisite desire.

He will have no time for half-measures because he accepts that he has been given a second chance himself and, while there will be inevitable peaks and troughs during the next three years, Wilkinson will demand total commitment from the players under his control.

In that respect he will resemble the man who lifted the Webb Ellis trophy but, on the field of play, do not expect Wilkinson to suddenly transform into a mirror image of Johnson.

England's most successful skipper was the ultimate breast beater, and it is to easy to imagine him reciting a few verses of Henry V in the dressing room prior to a bruising encounter in Paris or Durban.

Wilkinson is much more restrained, with his leadership qualities being of a far subtler variety.

His knowledge of the back row should continue the national side's move away from the kick and rush tactics they employed in the past.

The new skipper will quickly learn that he is the one man who must ultimately call the shots.

The fact the he is taking them - and invariably slotting them between the posts - can only act in his favour as well.