Former All Black Matthew Cooper has backed Jonny Wilkinson's criticism of the balls used at the recent World Cup, saying he also noticed problems with them during the tournament.
England first-five Wilkinson has slated the Gilbert balls as a "joke'' and said the organisers of the tournament were "horribly unprofessional'' for providing them.
He kicked only 50 per cent of his goals at the World Cup, the worst ratio of his career, and had some embarrassing misses at Dunedin's new enclosed and windless stadium.
"My feeling is that it's just horribly unprofessional and an extremely bitter pill to swallow that, at the biggest tournament in the sport, we're having to deal with this,'' Wilkinson has said in his autobiography.
"Again and again I'm hitting the same kick every time but it's non-match ball straight through the middle, match ball to the right.
"The problem is that when you feel like you're smashing it and the feedback is telling you that everything is great, yet the ball is swinging both ways and missing one way and then the other, you're left with a very difficult situation. From then on it's a joke.
"The organisers claim that all the balls are the same, but they're not. If they were they wouldn't be doing this.''
And Wilkinson, who has scored 1179 points in his test career, second only to Dan Carter - who also put on a mixed display with his left boot at the World Cup before succumbing to injury - has a supporter in Cooper.
"To see the actual strike rate or percentage rate so low does give you a bit of concern,'' Cooper, who scored a record 1604 points for Waikato, said.
"A guy like Wilkinson is a 70 or 80 per cent-plus kicker so there has to be [an issue with the balls]. You can't lose technique once you've got it. A player like him, who is the world's best, struggling, suggests there is some rationale behind it.
"I was concerned about the balls mid-flight and seeing where they were going. The ball seemed to lose its trajectory or its flight and that suggests to me that once the momentum had gone out of the kick it tended to have a bit of drift in the ball. There didn't seem to be too many issues with distance, it was all about flight.''
Cooper, a commentator at the World Cup for Sky TV, added: "There is scope to have a bit more research into the ball.''
Gilbert international brand manager Andy Challis told Britain's Daily Telegraph: "I'm not going to get into a war of words with Jonny, but I will defend our World Cup ball to the hilt.
"It was extensively used last season in the November internationals and Six Nations and Jonny was given a chance to test it personally more than a year ago. We couldn't have done more and many kickers in New Zealand seemed to thrive using the same ball.
"In addition to the match testing, a large selection of all of the balls used in the pool stages were sent to Paul Grayson down at Northampton, where he coaches, to test kick for us and to bin any ball he wasn't happy with. Paul also tested every single ball involved in the knockout stages before they were sent to New Zealand.''
But Cooper said: "I find it interesting that the makers of the ball would come out and put in back on the players or their technique or their day on the field because I'm sorry but kickers like Carter and Wilkinson, once they're at that particular level, they don't normally miss. I would suggest if Jonny Wilkinson is making some comment about the ball, there would be some truth in what he's saying.''
Ball controversies are nothing new in football World Cups, with issues invariably cropping up at every tournament. Last year in South Africa, the official adidas "Jubulani'' ball, which means "to celebrate'' in Bantu, was widely criticised by players and coaches and left a few goalkeepers looking a little foolish as they were beaten by the unusual flight.
Former All Black Andrew Mehrtens once called a particular brand of ball a "pig'' during his career due to the lack of elegance in its trajectory, perhaps appropriate given its pig bladder beginnings in the game.
