21st Century Greats: Jonny Wilkinson

A career that started so well was then ravaged by injury, but Wilkinson still deserves his place at the top table.

Over the course of the year, I will be posting biographies of 25 modern sporting greats to celebrate being a quarter way through the 21st Century. As usual, these posts will combine a summary of some of their sporting achievements mixed with my own memories of watching them. There is no order to the list, just a celebration of fantastic sportspeople.

21st Century Greats: Jonny Wilkinson

At around 11:00am on Saturday 22nd November 2003, the common room at my university halls of residence exploded. Not literally of course but with a blast of noise coming from the hordes of England fans in the room who had just witnessed Jonny Wilkinson keeping his calm to kick the winning drop goal against Australia in extra time of the World Cup final.

It was a moment that would always be harked back to during Wilkinson’s career as it provided a perfect example of what he became famous for: coolness under pressure. The man changed the game in his approach to pressure kicks - the deliberate steps backwards, the measured side steps, the crouch, the hands together, the look up and then bang, over it went, virtually every time (proven by an outstanding 95.7% kicking average during 5 years with Toulon).

The 2003 drop goal was obviously slightly different as the routine wasn’t possible but the measured nature of Wilkinson’s general play meant that when the ball was passed back to him there was never really any doubt. It was always going over. It did, England won, and the then 24-year old Wilkinson had his moment of eternal glory. However, although it is the moment he is most remembered for, it was by no means the only highlight in his career.

Even from a very young age, it was clear that Wilkinson was determined to succeed. In 2014, former teammate Tom May wrote an article about Wilkinson for ESPN and said that, ‘He drove himself on to new levels of performance never seen before. He wanted to be the best.’ It seems that he is yet another one of the sportsmen on this list so far that quickly realised that great success wouldn’t come without hard work.

When he first broke through for Newcastle and then England, it wasn’t clear what his best position was going to be, playing as both a centre and a winger for a time. Centre would be a position that he would sometimes return to later in his career too. Before his second full season began though, fly half Rob Andrew retired and Wilkinson stepped in to take that role for both club and country. The rest, as they say, is history.

Wilkinson saw success early on with his Newcastle team winning the league in his debut season. He was soon playing for the national team as well, earning his debut aged 18 against Ireland in 1998. By the time the following Five Nations championship came around in 1999, Wilkinson was a regular starter and somewhat key part of the team.

In that tournament, the last to be played with only five teams, despite winning their first three matches, England were defeated by Wales in their final fixture and were pipped to the title by Scotland. Wilkinson started all four games, albeit at centre as fly half duties were shared by Mike Catt and Paul Grayson, and scored 60 points in total which was only 4 fewer than tournament top scorer Neil Jenkins.

1999 was also a World Cup year and Wilkinson would have expected to be a huge part of the team having consolidated his starting place. It started off this way as he was picked to start against Italy (scoring 32 points) and the loss to New Zealand but was then rested against Tonga. He did start again in the win over Fiji but was unexpectedly benched for the quarter final against South Africa, a game which England lost and were put out of the tournament.

Wilkinson had regained his place by the time that the inaugural Six Nations tournament began in the spring of 2000 and England went on to win. However, they missed out on the Grand Slam by losing to Scotland in their final game. The next year they won again (although Ireland denied them the Grand Slam once more) and Wilkinson set the single point record for a match with 35 points against Italy.

It was also in 2001 that Wilkinson took part in his first British and Irish Lions tour and was selected to start the tests against Australia, helped by an injury to Welshman Neil Jenkins. The Lions won the first test with Wilkinson converting three of their tries and scoring a penalty. However, they struggled more from there and Wilkinson was actually singled out as being to blame for the second test loss as it was his stray pass that led to Australia’s winning try.

He redeemed himself in the third test by scoring a try, two conversions and three penalties for 18 points (another record) but ultimately the Lions were defeated again and lost the series 2-1. Despite the defeat here it had been a successful few years for Wilkinson and he was now beginning to be seen as one of the foremost fly-halves in the game.

England’s Six Nations crown was taken by France in 2002 but they still played well and set up internationals against all three of the major Southern hemisphere nations for the Autumn as they knew they had a World Cup to prepare for the following year. Wilkinson starred in a victory over the All Blacks (their first in 9 years) in the first match, scoring a try, two conversions, three penalties and a drop goal.

This seemed like a major breakthrough for the team but in their second game against Australia they found themselves behind by 31-19. However, they didn’t give up and Wilkinson’s prowess with the boot helped them stage a 32-31 comeback victory. They then went on to decimate South Africa in their final match. An incredibly successful end to the year set England up very nicely with a key year in their history to come.

England began the 2003 Six Nations tournament by beating defending champions France and then went on a roll, beating everyone else on their way to picking up the Grand Slam, their first since 1995. During the tournament, Wilkinson was entrusted as captain for the first time against Italy in the absence of Martin Johnson. The team followed this up with World Cup warm up victories over the All Blacks, Australia and France again to firmly establish themselves as one of the tournament favourites.

Wilkinson started the World Cup strongly, scoring 16 points in an 84-6 victory over Georgia. He then continued his fine form as England defeated South Africa and Samoa before being rested in the final group stage win over Uruguay. In the quarters and semis, England faced familiar competition, first beating Wales and then France. In the latter game, Wilkinson kicked all of his team’s 24 points to set up a mouthwatering final against hosts Australia.

It was a tight game where Australia drew first blood with an early try but England then built a small lead through the boot of Wilkinson before he released the electric Jason Robinson to score a wonderful try in the corner. In a normal game England may have kicked on but in this case nerves came into play and mistakes became commonplace with England making 15 handling errors. Australia chipped away at the lead and finally brought the scores level at 14-14 with a final minute penalty, taking the match into 20 minutes of extra time.

A penalty apiece was shared during this period before Wilkinson stepped up to take his moment with the aforementioned drop goal. It had been an incredible tournament and a wonderful couple of years for the team but it was Wilkinson who became the focal point of the victory and he was voted as Sports Personality of the Year by the BBC and was also the face of rugby for those who were discovering the sport.

Unfortunately for him it would be the last taste of glory that he would have for a while as his next couple of seasons were ravaged by injury. Despite this, and despite initially being left out, his former England coach Clive Woodward selected him in the Lions squad to tour New Zealand in 2005. However, it was not a pleasant experience with the team only drawing with Argentina before being soundly defeated in the first two tests against the All Blacks which Wilkinson started. Another injury left him out of the final test defeat and his bad luck continued with various ailments following this.

Despite a variety of comebacks, it wasn’t really until 2007 that Wilkinson finally made his way back to the international scene, scoring 27 points in a Calcutta Cup victory over Scotland. He broke the Five/Six Nations overall points scoring record during that season but missed the final games due to yet another injury scare. It was becoming clear at this point in his career that despite clearly being a wonderful player, the major blemish on Wilkinson’s overall legacy would probably end up being his own inability to stay fit.

When it came to defending their World Cup title in 2007, Wilkinson returned to that starting team for the third pool match and played every match thereafter as England once again reached the final. Even though he overtook Gavin Hastings to become the World Cup’s greatest ever points scorer during the tournament, Wilkinson could not inspire the team to more final heroics and they were beaten by South Africa.

England endured a poor Six Nations campaign in 2008 and Wilkinson’s role as first choice fly half began to be questioned. He then suffered injury and yet another long layoff, during which time he left Newcastle after 12 years to join French side Toulon. Although injuries would continue to disrupt his career, Wilkinson did enjoy further glory there, leading the team to successive Heineken Cup victories in 2012-13 and 2013-14. This was a wonderful way to cap off his career and probably well deserved for the commitment that he had brought to the game despite his struggles.

Wilkinson had retired from international rugby in 2011 after never really being able consistently recover his starting berth, but despite his injury problems he still sits in third place on the overall international rugby points scored list and the overall Six Nations points list. It is clear that, when fit, he had a huge impact on his team’s performances and on rugby in general. He remains a 21st Century great due to the things that he managed to achieve in his career, and his moment in what remains the only World Cup victory by a Northern hemisphere team, but we are only left to imagine what he could have possibly achieved if he had managed to stay fit and healthy.

Notable Achievements:

1x World Cup winner

2x Heineken Cup winner

4x Six Nations winner

Most points in World Cup history (277)

Most penalties in World Cup history (58)

Most drop goals in World Cup history (14)

Most points in a single Six Nations (89 in 2001)

Most points in a single Six Nations game (35 v Italy in 2001)

Most Test points scored by a British and Irish Lion (67)

Third most test career points (1,246)