England's decision to drop Jonny Wilkinson for Saturday's Six Nations clash with Ireland has been branded "ridiculous" by Steve Bates, director of rugby at the fly-half's club Newcastle.

Wilkinson (pictured) had a poor game in the 15-9 defeat by Scotland last weekend but Bates is at a loss to understand why his player has been singled out for punishment given how abjectly the entire XV performed at Murrayfield.

"I was very surprised he was left out. It is a ridiculous decision in terms of the performance of the team as a whole," Bates complained.

"It seems to me that the decision is about saying, 'this is a symptom, we will treat the symptom', rather than treating the actual cause of the problem.

"The cause of the problem was the pack didn't play very well and didn't control the ball and gave away too many penalties - most of which were the forwards - which allowed Scotland to kick territory and goals.

"Jonny, on the other hand, was given not much decent ball, kicked his goals - I am not sure what you want from him in those conditions much more than that."

Wilkinson will be on the bench against Ireland and he will be acutely aware that his days as England's first-choice at number ten will be over if Danny Cipriani lives up to his potential in the role on his first international start.

AFP