On a couple of occasions he was waved off the field by referee Tony Spreadbury, which was a bit like telling the Queen to keep of the grass at a Buckingham Palace garden party.Wilkinson's latest comeback date is a none too convincing promise to make England's summer tour to the antipodes. And all with the young maestro himself looking on. Wilkinson, who has not finished a match since the World Cup, was deployed here to bring on drinks for his team mates - a taxing task during a fast, pacy game on a sunny afternoon but not what we are used to seeing him do in this corner of south-west London, taken over for the day by two teams from the North.It made Wilkinson the most expensive water carrier since the Aswan Dam and he sat on the bench with his hands clasped in front of him, in contemplation rather than as the familiar preparation for yet another kick at goal. But with Jonny Wilkinson's deadline to return from a shoulder operation proving as reliable as a rail timetable, this was the ideal chance for Walder and his Sale counterpart, Charlie Hodgson, to present their credentials. Similarly, Dave Walder has never really had the chance to stake his claim as Newcastle's pre-eminent fly-half, let alone England's. The joke used to go that Ringo Starr was not even the best drummer in the Beatles. Wales centre Tom Shanklin touched down twice for Cardiff, who now look certain to miss out on qualification for next season's Heineken Cup.. "Chris had seen probably 150 cases in Aussie Rules football but it wasn't recognised in this country.

You can fight through it, but I wasn't lasting training sessions, and I was playing in games not feeling right. The nerve would settle down, but as soon as you exercised, it was there again."Inevitably, after England's wobbles in the recent Six Nations' Championship, the re-emergence of a 27-year-old with 36 caps has prompted talk of more international honours. "Basically the nerve had buckled and wasn't doing its job," said Perry. I had loads of physio which wasn't working." That was when Bath made contact with an Australian specialist in soft-tissue injuries, Chris Bradshaw. "It was there at the end of last season, and at the start of this one, then I had 14 games until December at Saracens when - shoosh - it just went again, a spasm all down my leg. "It was going round in my head whether I was going to play again or not.

To go through the operation and come out the other side, having seen what it's done to my leg, is amazing."Perry was running freely 10 days after the surgery at the Princess Grace Hospital in London, and is one game into what he believes is the definitive comeback after any number of agonising false starts "It kept coming back," he said. Then the nerve problem - several times misdiagnosed since first presenting itself while he was with the Lions - helped lose him his England place, and reduced a flying Bath career to fits and starts: a couple of matches here, a dozen there.Six weeks ago, an operation pioneered in Australia but thought to be a first for a British rugby player, rectified the complaint "It was like standing on the edge of an abyss," said Perry. Only now, after the success of a revolutionary operation to repair a nerve in his groin, can Perry focus, once again, on the far horizons.In the summer of 2001, Perry toured with the Lions to Australia and was hailed as the northern hemisphere's leading player in his position. For almost three years, Bath's record-breaking England full-back was stuck at ground level, able to see no further than the next appointment with the doctor or physiotherapist. Substitutes: Ryder, Elima, Hood, Talipau.Referee: R Silverwood (Dewsbury).