He may not be ‘Sir Jonny’ just yet, but after a long and undoubtedly successful career, including one of the most memorable moments ever in rugby history, Jonny Wilkinson is no doubt one of the most widely acclaimed sportsmen of recent times. A vital year for rugby, 2015 keeps him busy as an ambassador for the World Cup alongside his extensive charity based work, and with further royal recognition bound to be in the pipeline, it’s worth taking a look back at his remarkable achievements.
Long ago (1997 to be precise) a rugby obsessed teenager moved up north to Newcastle to become a professional rugby player for Newcastle Falcons, and as they say the rest is history. Aged only 18, Wilkinson became part of England’s full test squad in 1998 and gained his first cap when he replaced Mike Catt on the wing against Ireland in the April. The following year, the Surrey-born youngster started all of England’s Five Nations matches, before going on to appear in the Tetley’s Bitter Cup final with Falcons against Wasps. 1999 continued to be a great year for Wilkinson, scoring a try on his debut in the World Cup versus Italy, totalling a score of 32 points in this match altogether.
Following on from the previous year, he played in all of England’s games in their championship winning Five Nations campaign of 2000. A few months later, the Falcons star toured South Africa with England and then was capped another three times in the Autumn internationals. 2001 saw him overtake Rob Andrews’ record for individual points scored in a Five/Six Nations game (Wilkinson scored 35 points v Italy) and was part of the Powergen Cup winning Newcastle Falcons side. Success mounted as he was chosen over Neil Jenkins as first choice kicker and fly-half for the 2001 British and Irish Lions Tour of Australia, an accolade so big for an early twenty-something boy. He achieved joint-highest score in a single Lions match by kicking 18 points in the third test, putting him in a prominent position within his country’s squad.
Wilkinson made his first captaincy for England in 2003 when he took over responsibilities for the Six Nations from Martin Johnson, who was unavailable due to the birth of his first child. The final game of the tournament saw Wilkinson crowned Man of the Match after a superb 42-6 victory over Ireland, for which he was a pioneer. This uniformed England side went in as favourites of Pool D in the World Cup later that year, with Clive Woodward at the controls. As everyone knows, the 2003 World Cup turned Wilkinson from a star into a legend. He kicked all 24 points in the semi-final win over France and, as recorded in the history books, he famously scored the drop goal in the dying minutes of extra time in the final versus Australia to break the dominance that the Southern Hemisphere had over the international game. Not surprisingly, he was announced as the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year in 2003 as well as IRB International Player of the Year. He also gained recognition from the Queen when he became the youngest rugby union player ever to be awarded an MBE, which was raised to an OBE in 2004.
A shoulder injury saw him miss the 2004 Six Nations and Summer tour, but the England number 10 returned as captain on October 4th, replacing Lawrence Dallaglio who had stepped down as captain the month before. However, an unfortunate injury, again, forced him to sit out of the Autumn internationals and the following year’s Six Nations. 2005 saw him make his first international appearance since the 2003 World Cup final, despite not originally making Clive Woodward’s team for this Lions tour. In 2006 he was back as England’s top fly-half, becoming Man of the Match in the 42-20 win over Scotland, as well as making it as the highest individual points scorer of the Five/Six Nations with a total of 421 points.
More records were broken in 2007 when he became the World Cup’s leading points scorer with 231 points, a silver lining on the dark cloud that was England’s defeat to South Africa in the final. He was also only one of four players (the others being Ben Kay, Phil Vickery and Jason Robinson) to have started both the 2003 and 2007 World Cup’s. 2008 saw Wilkinson become the first ever England player (and second internationally) to exceed 1000 test points, achieved during the Six Nations where he was dropped to the bench for only the second time in his England career (occurred during a match with Ireland where Danny Cipriani replaced him). A dislocated knee gave further dismay as it left him out of the Autumn internationals and the rest of the 2008-09 Guinness Premiership season with Falcons.
In the May of 2009 it was confirmed that Wilconson was to leave Falcons after a sterling 12 years of dedication to the club. He went on to play in the 2009 end-of-year international games, but missed out on the following year’s Autumn matches due to injury. He reclaimed his title of all-time leading points scorer from Dan Carter when he came off the bench for each of England’s Six Nations fixtures in 2011, but was notably off-form during that year’s abysmal World Cup campaign, in which England players, coaches and backroom staff were in hot water for a variety of misdemeanours. Following on from this, in the December of 2011 Wilkinson announced his retirement from test rugby. A huge blow for England.
Seemingly settled in France, he won the Heineken Cup with Toulon in 2013 and was named ERC European Player of the Year for his outstanding performance during the competition (scored 17 from 17 in the knock-out stages and racked up 108 points overall in the tournament). In May 2014 he revealed that he would retire from professional rugby at the end of the season. However, before he said goodbye to the game after a prosperous 17 years, Wilkinson went on to win the Heineken Cup with Toulon, in a final which saw him score 13 points against Saracens, and be victorious in the Top 14 final to become champions yet again. In this, the last match of his career, Wilkinson scored 15 of the 18 points against Castres, the perfect ending to an awe-inspiring career.
He continues to drive rugby internationally and participates in events running up to the 2015 World Cup in England. His continuous work with various charities play’s well to his often acknowledged honourable and kind nature. A gentleman off the pitch and a genius on it, Jonny Wilkinson will go down as one of his country’s greats.
Newcastle Falcons: 12 years, 182 appearances, 2,049 points.
Toulon: 5 years, 141 appearances, 1,884 points.
England: 13 years, 91 caps, 1,179 points.
British and Irish Lions: 2 tours, 6 caps, 67 points.
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