Jonny Wilkinson will find out later today if he has kept his place in the England side as the clamour grows for Brian Ashton to drop the World cup winner.

The fly-half was hauled off with ten minutes to go of England’s defeat to Scotland on Saturday having failed to spark his side into life in a dire team performance.

The pressure is back on Ashton now to replace Wilkinson with Wasps youngster Danny Cipriani, who was due to start at full-back against Scotland before being dropped for ‘inappropriate behaviour’.

But calls from several former England players for the 20-year-old to usurp his senior rival in the No.10 shirt have now been reinforced ahead of England’s final game with Ireland, with Ashton set to name his team at 1.30pm today.

Ex-England scrum-half Dewi Morris told The Sun this morning: “Jonny has to go for the good of the team.

“If his name was Smith or Bloggs he’d be carrying water bottles onto the pitch.

“I take no pleasure in calling for Jonny’s head. But if you take away his kicking gift and unquestioned courage, there is little else there,” added Morris.

And Wilkinson’s World Cup winning half-back partner Matt Dawson also admitted his former team mate should get the chop.

“England need players in form and there are a number of other fly-halves playing better than Jonny,” he told the BBC.