He's already become a British sporting hero, World Cup winner and freeman of his adopted home city of Newcastle. Now Jonny Wilkinson is set to become a video game character.

The 24-year-old World Cup winning fly-half will star in a new game set to hit video gaming stores next month.

World Championship Rugby will be available for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and the PC and industry experts expect it to be an instant best-seller.

The game has been developed by Birmingham-based Swordfish Studios, one of the UK's respected independent game development studios, and will be published by Acclaim Entertainment.

Larry Sparks, Vice President, Marketing, Acclaim International, said: "World Championship Rugby will set the new benchmark for rugby games."

"The same highly talented development team, still together under Swordfish Studios, was responsible for creating, Jonah Lomu Rugby, one the greatest rugby games of all time.

"Since that original game the studio has received countless requests from gamers wanting a follow-up. I'm quite sure that fans of the original will be delighted to hear that the team is now committed to delivering the most compelling, hard-hitting, highly playable rugby game for next generation systems and PC. It will be a game that really delivers what they want - a game that's so real it hurts!"

Trevor Williams, Managing Director, Swordfish Studios, added: "We really enjoyed developing the original Jonah Lomu game; but with our cutting-edge technology, designing a rugby game for next-generation consoles is even more exciting. We are totally focused on ensuring World Championship Rugby delivers on our promise to give gamers and fans the best rugby game yet.".