The injury-dogged fly-half successfully came through his fourth outing of the season in Newcastle's 39-5 defeat by Leicester at Welford Road on Saturday.

Wilkinson, out since November with a lacerated kidney, played more than half the match after coming on as a replacement for injured full-back Anthony Elliott just before the break.

Wilkinson - who has not played for his country since the Final of Rugby World Cup 2003 - is in new England coach Brian Ashton's 29-man squad for the Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham and is tipped to land a place on the bench when the line-up is named on Monday.

"They're not my decisions but he's ready to play," said Newcastle coach John Fletcher.

"It's entirely up to Brian. I'm not too sure what Brian's thoughts are about players who haven't played a lot of rugby in a relatively short period of time. But he's available."

Newcastle's rising star, Toby Flood, the man expected to start at fly-half for England next Saturday, switched to centre and then to full-back to accommodate his mentor.

Wilkinson slotted effortlessly back into his old routine, called the shots, added much-needed structure to the Falcons attack, distributed intelligently and demonstrated full commitment to the tackle.

"I thought he went well - he's obviously been training pretty well," said Fletcher.

"That's pretty much what we expect from him. He generates some pace in the game as long as the team can give him the ball.

"Every time he comes back, he makes a point of coming back physically better.

"So there is absolutely no reason why he's not going to be better than the last time he played."

Leicester coach Pat Howard was more guarded with his assessment of Wilkinson's readiness.

"Jonny is just finding his feet," he said. "I am sure the biggest thing for Jonny is getting a run of games. Everyone knows he's a good player."

The Tigers' five-try victory, which took them back to the top of the Premiership, illustrated their strength in depth as Howard rang the changes from the Heineken Cup win in Munster.

Shane Jennings, one of only two players to keep their places in the starting line-up, scored Leicester's first try while the visitors were down to 14 men and number eight Jordan Crane grabbed a crucial second score with the Falcons reduced to 13.

Fletcher was critical of referee Wayne Barnes's decision to send Jason Oakes and Russell Winter to the sin-bin but conceded it had been a "bad day at the office" for his team.

"We were shabby, to be honest," he said.

"We just never got into the game. Our basics and decision-making were poor. We didn't give ourselves a chance.

"Getting two guys in the sin-bin away to Leicester, you're not going to win games doing that, though I thought both were pretty tough decisions and maybe there was some inconsistency."

Leicester led 20-5 at half-time and cruised through the second period, with prop Marcos Ayerza scoring his first try for the club and winger Tom Varndell touching down twice in four minutes to emphasise his side's superiority.

"At 6-5, it was fairly tight, probably wasn't as one-sided as the score suggests," said Howard.

"Losing a couple of guys to the bin distorted the score going into half-time.

"It wasn't perfect from us but, defensively, I thought we worked very hard and didn't give them a lot of opportunities to score."