Jonny Wilkinson will increase his legendary workload to win back his place in the England starting line-up after being dropped for just the third time in his international career.

The World Cup winner will start Saturday’s final Six Nations game against France in Paris from the bench after losing the number 10 shirt to former club mate, Newcastle’s Toby Flood.

But Wilkinson, renowned for his meticulous preparation, is not ready to give up his jersey and vowed to labour even harder when he returns to his French club, Toulon.

And the fly-half claims he will not be satisfied with just turning out for England and collecting caps.

“I have got to go back, work with all the people I work with and I am going to search for more and for better,” Wilkinson told reporters at England’s Surrey training camp.

“I am going to work harder and I will keep doing that until the day I finish.

“I am desperate to play as many times as I can for England as long as it is right. I don’t want to play for England if I am not doing as good a job as someone else. I don’t want to play for England if I don’t have the right to be there.

“You have to earn that right and I am in the process of doing that. I want to continue to learn and grow and get to where I know I can be.

“By doing that I hope England will continue to be a part of my life until the last day. But if I continue to search for my best and it doesn’t involve England then that is the outcome it is and I am more than happy with that – as long as I turn up each day and say ‘What more can I do’ then I will continue to do that.

“What I don’t want to do is to not find my best and just be ticking boxes and saying ‘I have got this many caps or this many points’ or whatever.”

The 30-year-old has been on the bench four times for England in 77 appearances, scoring 1105 points, once on his debut in 1998 and once in a World Cup warm-up match in 2003.

Wilkinson was also dropped for Paul Grayson in the 1999 World Cup and for Danny Cipriani in the 2008 Six Nations as well as suffering more than a dozen serious injuries since dropping the goal that won England the World Cup in 2003.

And typically Wilkinson has refused to sulk about being dropped by his old colleague Martin Johnson, preferring to see it as an chance to learn.

He added: “Like anyone I prefer to be there and to be getting stuck in but this is an opportunity to make the most of.

“Being on the bench gives an interesting perspective on things. You get to see what is happening from slightly more distance and you can understand things a little bit more before you get into it.

“But what you don’t get is the feel of it. That is the difference.

“Being on the field you don’t get that bigger picture but you do get the feel of things. When you are on the bench and you come on you might have an idea of what is going on, and be able to send on messages, but you have got to pick up pretty quickly that these guys have been out there and have got used to the flow of the game.

“It is the mixture of having that close up view when you are playing – that ten metre circle around you – and taking the hits but you lose that big view.

“On the side you get that big view but lose that intensity and the hits.”

France 24