Australia centre Elton Flatley will be every bit as dangerous as England's goal kicking wizard Jonny Wilkinson in Saturday's World Cup final, England coach Clive Woodward claimed today.
Wilkinson and his left boot have been the focus of attention after he kicked all England's points in their 24-7 semi-final defeat of France last Sunday.
But Woodward said Australia's Flatley had a superior success rate to Wilkinson, which meant both sides had to keep penalties to a minimum.
"Both camps know that if we do something illegal, we will get penalised and lose the game," Woodward told a news conference.
"Everyone talks about Wilkinson's kicking ability yet Flatley's got the highest success rate in this tournament. We want to be in low figures in terms of penalties and I'm sure the Wallabies want to be that way as well.
Flatley has kicked 17 penalties from 20 attempts for a success rate of 85 per cent, compared with Wilkinson's 76 per cent success rate after landing 19 penalties from 25 attempts.
With penalties important in what is likely to be a closely fought match, especially if the rain forecast for Sydney on Saturday arrives, the breakdown will become a crucial area of play for both teams.
Of equal importance will be South African referee Andre Watson's interpretation of that area, regardless of accusations in Australian media that England's forwards routinely infringe at the breakdown by trying to slow down the ball.
Woodward said he had met Watson earlier this week and was happy the final would be controlled by the world's best referee. "We think we're fine at the contact area, we think the Wallabies are fine and the bottom line is we have got the world's best referee watching us," he said.
