Jonny's back - but only among the replacements for the unbeaten Newcastle Falcons as they take their three match unbeaten Heineken Cup run in Pool 5 to Murrayfield for Saturday's return clash with Edinburgh Rugby.
Having missed the opening three rounds, the England World Cup hero is ready to return to action after six weeks on the sidelines with a bicep injury. There are four changes to the side that beat Edinburgh 34-24 last weekend and Jamie Noon takes over the captaincy.
Joint skipper Ian Peel is ruled out of front row action after picking up a hamstring injury and neck strain, while USA international lock Luke Gross was not considered after spending the week in bed with flu. James Isaacson takes over from Peel and Craig Hamilton replaces Gross.
The other change in the pack is at right head prop where Marius Hurter starts ahead of Micky Ward. Behind the scrum, James Grindal returns at scrum half in place of Hall Charlton.
Falcons director of rugby, Rob Andrew, admitted he hopes to get Wilkinson back into the action at some stage during the game. Perhaps he wants him to get used to the conditions at Murrayfield . . . the venue for the 10th anniversary Heineken Cup final on Sunday, 22 May, 2005.
"We'll probably bring him on at some stage - we'll just see how it goes. It would be great if we could get him some action, and we've been very happy this season to use the bench," said Andrew.
"Dave Walder and Jonny have probably played a similar number of games for the club over the last three years, and we need two quality players in that position, so Dave is extremely important to us.
"This season he has been fantastically consistent. He stepped in at Rodney Parade against the Newport Gwent Dragons in difficult conditions and ran the game - and he's carried it on from there.
"We've only lost two games in the last two months, London Irish and Sale, which we should have won as well, and so we've actually had a reasonable run with Dave at the helm."
Even though Edinburgh, quarter-finalists last season, have yet to win a game in Pool 5 to date, Andrew knows just how dangerous they can be. The warning to his players for the return leg is simple - play that badly again, and you'll lose!
"I thought Edinburgh did very well last week. They were the better side for 65 minutes and they outplayed us in the forwards. If I was them I'd be licking my lips at having a go at us there again and trying to smash us," said Andrew.
"If Mark Mayerhofler hadn't made a try-saving tackle on Chris Paterson early in the second half, then we would have lost the game, for sure. Not only did he stop him scoring, but he won us a penalty as well."
