The injury-dogged fly-half successfully came through his first Premiership match for 12 weeks in Newcastles 39-5 defeat by Leicester at Welford Road on Saturday.

Englands World Cup hero, out since November with a lacerated kidney, played more than half the match after coming on as a replacement for injured full-back Anthony Elliott just before the break.

Wilkinson - who has not played for his country since the 2003 World Cup final - is in new England coach Brian Ashtons 29-man squad for the Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham and is tipped to land a place on the bench when the line-up is named on Monday.

Theyre not my decisions but hes ready to play, said Newcastle coach John Fletcher.

Its entirely up to Brian. Im not too sure what Brians thoughts are about players who havent played a lot of rugby in a relatively short period of time. But hes available.

Toby Flood, the man expected to start at fly-half for England next Saturday, switched to centre and then to full-back to accommodate Wilkinson, who slotted effortlessly back into his old routine.

He added much-needed structure to the Falcons attack, distributed intelligently and demonstrated full commitment to the tackle.

I thought he went well, added Fletcher. Hes obviously been training pretty well.

Thats pretty much what we expect from him. He generates some pace in the game as long as the team can give him the ball.

Every time he comes back, he makes a point of coming back physically better.

So there is absolutely no reason why hes not going to be better than the last time he played.

Leicester coach Pat Howard said: Jonny is just finding his feet. I am sure the biggest thing for Jonny is getting a run of games. Everyone knows hes a good player.