You know who is back. Three months after suffering a lacerated kidney, Jonny Wilkinson has made his comeback and it could scarcely have gone more swimmingly - from an England point of view at least, for his Newcastle side were on the wrong end of a five-try drubbing after putting up a decent enough showing in the first half hour.

There were obviously valuable Premiership points at stake, but it would not be an exaggeration to state that roughly 16,815 pairs of eyes were trained on the Newcastle replacements' bench, for the first half at any rate. The Welford Road faithful are about as committed to their club as it is possible to be. But any rugby supporter worth his salt - English or not, Leicester or not - must surely yearn to see Wilkinson pull on the white shirt of England once again after the most astonishing run of injuries that have kept him out of international rugby since some night or other in Sydney more than three years ago.

And Wilkinson, who came on just before the break when Anthony Elliott hobbled off, acquitted himself as one would expect - with commitment and passion. Toby Flood retained the place-kicking duties, but Wilkinson looked assured as could be reasonably expected after his lay-off. Not afraid to take the ball into contact, he passed off both hands with elan and delivered a couple of thunderous touchfinders. Nor was his defence to be found wanting, either.

Given his lack of match time, it is unlikely that Brian Ashton will include the Newcastle stand-off in his starting XV for Saturday's Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham - a team that is due to be unveiled tomorrow. But don't rule out a place among the substitutes for Wilkinson. Ashton has never been one given to sitting on fences. And if the recently appointed England head coach thinks that Golden Boots is ready for a run out, then all well and good. Twickenham has not had a great deal to cheer in recent times, but imagine the roar of approval in south-west London six days hence, should Wilkinson make his reappearance.

A heartfelt roar was certainly to be heard around Welford Road when Wilkinson entered the fray. Flood, who will almost certainly be handed the England No 10 jersey by Ashton and enjoyed a secure enough game against a Tigers side who took their sweet time to build up a head of steam, shifted to the inside-centre berth to allow Wilkinson to slot into his preferred outside-half position. And just about the first thing that Wilkinson did was to pick himself up gingerly from the remnants of a ruck after Ben Kay had hit the breakdown at a rate of knots and, some might say, somewhat irresponsibly. As a welcome-back present from a fellow World Cup winner, it could have been a touch more thoughtful.

The game until that stage had been a disjointed affair, with Leicester, who retained just Seru Rabeni and Shane Jennings from the starting XV that gained such a magnificent victory in Munster eight days ago, perhaps not surprisingly struggling for fluency. After Paul Burke had edged the Tigers ahead with a brace of early penalties, Newcastle performed notably well at the maul and thoroughly deserved Elliott's well-worked try midway through the first period, after a line-out and quickly recycled midfield ball had created an overlap on the left flank. But Newcastle then conspicuously shot themselves in both feet by having Jason Oakes and Russell Winter sent to the cooler for offences at the breakdown. And Leicester took full advantage, effectively settling the outcome with close-range tries from Shane Jennings and Jordan Crane - the latter when the visiting side were down to 13 men - in the 10-minute period before the interval. Marcos Ayerza added a third on the hour when he was driven over whereupon Tom Varndell added a quickfire brace in the closing minutes to rub salt in Newcastle wounds. In the end, Newcastle had been well and truly beaten, but at least Wilkinson emerged unscathed.

Welford Road 16,815

LeicesterJ Murphy; Lloyd (Tuilagi 61), Rabeni, Vesty, Varndell; Burke (Humphreys 68), F Murphy; Buckland, Holford (Castrogiovanni 54), Kay (capt), Hamilton, Deacon (Corry 64), Jennings (Croft 54), Crane

Tries Jennings, Crane, Ayerza, Varndell 2 Cons Burke 3, Humphreys Pens Burke 2

NewcastleElliott (Wilkinson ht); May, Tait, Noon, Crichton (Mayerhofler 68); Flood, Grindal (Dickson 55); McDonnell (capt), Thompson (Long 50), Ward (Golding 61), Sorenson, Oakes, Parling, Woods (Buist 65), Winter (Wilson 55)

Try Elliott

Referee W Barnes