Hodgson's mission is to keep blossoming in shadow of Wilkinson

"The poor always ye have with you," said St Luke and, in making his point, he might also have mentioned ticket touts, hospitality boxes, bad beer, overpriced wine, traffic policemen and Rolf Harris. Rugby has its imperishables, too, the first of which is the abiding argument over the outside-half position. Runner or kicker, artist or mechanic, soft hands or sledgehammer boot, risk-taker or percentage merchant? The debate holds good for all nations in all eras, a sporting issue to tax the mind and inflame the passions.

By and large, dependability lords it over unpredictability. A quarter of a century ago, the New Zealanders chose the unashamedly steady Doug Bruce over the more inventive Eddie Dunn; the Welsh never plucked up sufficient courage to give Arwel Thomas, a fragile spirit touched with genius, a prolonged run at the expense of Neil Jenkins. In South Africa, the automotive Naas Botha saw off a dozen contenders, all of whom seemed more exciting to the naked eye. Even the French, who philosophise about freedom of expression the way other people ask for a pound of sugar, preferred Christophe Lamaison to Thomas Castaignède.

In England, the dispute reached its high watermark between 1984 and 1994, when Rob Andrew and Stuart Barnes were at each other's throats. There was a huge degree of over-simplification in the Andrew-Barnes affair - the former's running skills were far more considerable than generally assumed, the latter every bit as ruthless a tactician as his rival - but the popular prints chose to ignore the grey areas and paint the picture in black and white. In the end, Andrew's black arts secured the white shirt. He won 71 caps, 61 more than Barnes.

And now we have Jonny Wilkinson: the most prolific points-gatherer in the history of the game, the most destructive tackler ever to appear in a No 10 jersey, the most photographed English rugger-bugger ever to pull on a pair of sponsor's boots, the most talked-about ... the most celebrated ... the most everything. If anyone threatened to end all discussion about the who and how and when of outside-half play, it was Jonny Boy with his World Cup-clinching drop goal.

At 24, Wilkinson has another couple of global tournaments left in him, by which time union and league may have mutated into a single sport and half of America could be living on the moon. Why, you may ask, should anyone else bother? Happily, rugby does not work like that. Wilkinson's chronic injury problems have cast a shadow over his sporting longevity and anyway, who is to say that he will continue to kick goals by the gross?

If class is permanent and form only temporary, a temporary run of bad form can cause all kinds of damage to a player's confidence - even a player as obsessively focused as England's vice-captain. And as Clive Woodward, the national coach, frequently points out, the door to the team is never locked behind a player, merely left on the latch.

For these very good reasons, Charlie Hodgson will continue to bother until Woodward tells him he is wasting his energy, which is unlikely to be any time soon. The 23-year-old Sale stand-off would have accompanied Wilkinson to the World Cup - and, quite possibly, lined up alongside him in an All Black-style five-eighths arrangement - but for the freakishly awkward fall that mangled the cruciate ligament in his left knee and set back his career by the not inconsiderable period of eight months. Had his studs not got themselves caught up in a particularly unyielding sod of Twickenham turf during the Six Nations match with Italy last March, it is perfectly possible that Mike Catt would not have made the subsequent trip to Australia.

Woodward likes Hodgson. He likes him a lot. When Sale put 40 points on Wasps at Loftus Road some 17 months ago, the coach described the Yorkshireman's performance as the most accomplished he had seen from an English outside-half in years. Hodgson is no one's idea of a Wilkinson clone; his defensive work is nowhere near as heavy-duty and despite the fact that he has recently nailed last-minute drop goals to see off Cardiff and Leinster, his nerves are made of twine rather than piano wire.

But his goalkicking stands comparison with most and his distribution is considerably more subtle than that of the red rose incumbent. Woodward ran them together against France and Wales last year, and while he relegated Hodgson to the bench after a less than convincing victory in Cardiff, he did not dismiss the experiment as an abject failure.

Tomorrow afternoon, when Sale take on Leinster in a highly significant Heineken Cup match at Edgeley Park, the coach will watch Hodgson's every move with considerable interest. Wilkinson remains injured and while he is odds-on to return before England's ticklish little trip to Rome next month, there is no guarantee of him staying fit for long.

In the event of another mishap, Woodward might turn to Paul Grayson of Northampton, whose tactical kicking game against London Irish a couple of weeks back was a thing of rare beauty. He might even turn to Alex King of Wasps. But he will think about Hodgson, too, and think hard.

"I'd love to play a part in this Six Nations, but if I'm honest, I'm still lacking some pace and general sharpness," Hodgson admitted this week. "I'm only a few games into my comeback, and the hard edge will not return without some more match practice. But at least I'm playing again and loving every minute of my rugby with Sale.

"These few weeks of Heineken Cup rugby will certainly help me get back to where I was before the injury, because it's such a big stage. The physicality of our game against Leinster in Dublin last week was really quite extreme, and to come through it in decent shape was good for the soul," he added.

When Hodgson hit the deck at Twickenham during that victory over the Azzurri - he had been on the pitch less than six minutes - he had no idea that his World Cup ambitions had just disappeared in a cloud of thick, acrid smoke. "I was quite cheerful about things at first, because the doctors seemed positive," he recalled. "Then I had the scan, which revealed the true extent of the damage and changed everything. I went under the knife a couple of weeks later, and through it all I held on to the hope that I would recover in time to challenge for a place in the squad. But slowly it dawned on me that I wouldn't make it. I can't say it wasn't a hard time.

"There again, I think my appreciation of the game and my understanding of myself as a player have grown substantially since the injury. I watched a lot of rugby during rehabilitation and it broadened my perspective on things. It struck me that there were different ways of reacting to certain situations, and I've been trying to vary my game as a result. I think I've found a little bit of form over the last three or four weeks; certainly, I'm enjoying playing again. That's as much as I can ask at this stage."

Hodgson now accepts that his brief spell as inside-centre to Wilkinson was entirely speculative. But interestingly, he has not dismissed the notion of a return to the No 12 position. "If I'd had more than two games there, I might have adapted fairly well," he said. "I prefer the outside-half role, because that is the one I've been trained to perform, but I did enjoy the communicative side of things playing alongside Jonny. We swapped ideas - when either of us came up with something, the other listened. It was a process of discovery, as much as anything."

Right now, Hodgson is discovering the joys of Stockport after years of rugby in one of the leafier corners of Cheshire. "I think our move to Edgeley Park will benefit us," he said. "We're beginning to attract the crowds, and the football-pitch surface is better than the old one at Heywood Road. Mind you, the rugby lot are beginning to make a mess of it. The groundsman isn't looking too pleased these days."

If Hodgson continues to rip up the turf with some match-winning form, the groundsman can stay miserable for as long as he likes. The rest of England, not least Woodward, will be delighted.