Jonny Wilkinson: I will cheer Lions from home

London: Jonny Wilkinson last night admitted it would be “fabulous” to finish his career with one last British and Irish Lions tour but played down his chances of forcing his way into Warren Gatland’s squad despite overshadowing England fly-half Owen Farrell during Toulon’s Heineken Cup semi-final victory over Saracens.

Wilkinson scored all of his side’s points in the 24-12 victory on his first appearance at Twickenham since August 2011.

His seven penalties and a dropped goal was a record individual haul for the semi-finals. Such a commanding appearance in front of Gatland is bound to force him into contention during the final selection meeting today, before the squad is announced in London tomorrow morning.

However, Wilkinson - who faces competition from Farrell, Dan Biggar and potentially Rhys Priestland for the second fly-half place behind Ireland’s Jonny Sexton - suggested that the odds of going on a third tour remained remote.

“It is difficult for me,” said the fly-half who was part of the Lions tours of Australia in 2001 and New Zealand in 2005. “It is not at all that I wouldn’t consider it. I think it is fabulous - it is probably the most amazing experience you can get in rugby.

“But I have watched these other guys like Owen Farrell and Toby Flood in England, Biggar in Wales and Sexton in Ireland and they are driving rugby forward and they are the ones who perhaps should be driving this tour forward as well.

“I am enjoying what I am doing here but I want these guys to go and experience that because they deserve to. I feel like I am kind of digging my nails in and hanging on and those guys are looking forwards to see how far they can go.”

John Smit, the Saracens hooker, Danny Cipriani, the Sale fly-half, and even Sir Ian Botham, the former England cricketer, were among those last night who suggested that Wilkinson had done enough to win a Lions call despite having retired from the international game in 2011.

Bookmakers slashed his odds to join the summer tour of Australia from 10-1 to 5-1. Bernard Laporte, the Toulon coach, whose side now face Clermont Auvergne in the final in Dublin on May 18, also hailed Wilkinson’s performance.

“Jonny is a great player and has been for a long time,” he said. “We have seen before he was a great player. We knew that before and we know that again.”

Mark McCall, Saracens director of rugby, also had rich praise for Wilkinson, saying the 33-year-old was “playing his best rugby”.

McCall, however, was unhappy at the way the breakdown was interpreted by referee Alain Rolland.

“It will be interesting to try to find out how many penalties were given against the attacking team today,” he said.

“It seemed to me that it was a lot. When you have that kind of game and the defensive team are rewarded, having the ball is of little value.

“It was a really close tight game. The scoreline doesn’t say that. It looks like it was a comfortable victory to Toulon but that wasn’t the case.”

Brad Barritt, the Saracens centre, is an injury concern for the climax of their Aviva Premiership campaign after picking up an ankle injury. “It is too soon to say but it doesn’t look too good,” added McCall.

“We will assess the injury in the next couple of days.”