Jonny Wilkinson, a Rugby Legend.
Jonathan Peter Wilkinson commonly known as Jonny Wilkinson is one of the most dynamic and dependable players which the world of rugby has ever seen. He came to fame when he did a winning goal for England in the extra time, in the final of 2003 Rugby World
Cup against Australia. In fact, he became a real star of the England on that particular day.
Wilkinson was born on 25th May, 1979 in Frimley, Surry, England. He started his professional rugby career at New Castle Rugby Falcons, as an inside centre in 1997. In 1997-98 season, New Castle won the Premiership title and he was the real performer
in the Premiership.
Due to his remarkable performance in his first professional season, he had been called for the England test squad in thr same year. He started his international career as an unused replacement in the match against Scotland in March. He played his first match
as a starter player, in April, same year in the game against Ireland. He was only 18 years old at that time and became the second youngest player in the England’s rugby history.
His first major international tour was the tour of Australia and New Zealand, the tour is also known as ‘Tour of h**l’. England’s performance was more than worst on that tour and Wilkinson was sent back to domestic duties after that tour. He made his comeback
in 1999, in the Five Nations, played all the matches and performed well.
On the basis of performance in Five Nations, he had been selected in the 1999 World cup squad. He made his world cup debut against Italy and scored 32 points and England won that match with the score of 76-7. His next out class performance was came in the
year of 2000, on the tour of South Africa, where he scored all the points in England’s win our South Africa with the score of 27-22.
In 2001, he took one more record under his custody and he scored 35 points in the match against Italy in Six Nations. Due to his high class performance, England won the Six Nations title this year. During same year, he was picked in the British Lions tour
to Australia, Lions won the first match with the score of 29-13 and Wilkinson scored nine points there. In the same year, people saw one more brilliant performance from him, when he scored all the points in England’s win over Australia with the score of 21-15.
2003 brought more happiness for him and he was chosen as captain of England for the game against Italy, as regular captain Martin Johnson was unavailable due to birth of his first child. It was game of Six Nations and England won that game.
2003 World Cup was the year of his life, where he performed out standing in all the matches but the best was still to come in the main matches. He scored 23 points in the quarter final against Wales and England won by 28-17. His next best performance of
the tournament came in the semi final, where England beat France with the score of 24-7 and Wilkinson was the man; who scored all the points for England in that match. His performance in semi final took England in the final of world cup against Australia.
The final was the day of his life. Match was level with the score of 17-17 in the full 80 minutes time. Then Wilkinson came into action and scored a drop goal when only 26 seconds were remaining of the extra time and England won the world cup for the first
time in their history. It was Australia’s first world cup lost in eight years.
Years of 2004, 2005 and 2006 were not good for Wilkinson, as he missed most of the matches due to injury problems and he only appeared in few matches.
Next, people saw him in 2007 world cup. Where, he missed the opening two matches due to injury problem. He returned in the game against Samoa and scored 24 points. He once again showed his class in the game against Australia and England won that quarter
final game with the score of 12-10 and Wilkinson was the player who scored all the points. He also scored 9 points in the semi final win over France but he couldn’t help England to win the final against South Africa. He is currently leading world cup point
scorer with 231 points.
2008 and 2009 season wasn’t went good for his as he missed most of the matches due to injury problems and he was also dropped from the team in some matches, as England wanted to play with the new emerging talent Danny Cipriani. It was only 2nd
time in his career that he was dropped out from team.
Wilkinson then made his return in the team after 18 months, when he was selected for the matches against Australia and New Zealand in 2009. His performance was good there and now after recovering from all the injuries, he is very much hopeful for the coming
world cup in New Zealand and he wants to be the part of England’s world cup squad.
Wilkinson holds a bundle of records in his custody as well. He has won the International Rugby Union Player of the Year Award in 2003. His rugby career is still going and he still has lots of fans, who always love to watch him play.
So far, he has played 176 matches in his senior club career, scored 2150 points and played 80 matches for England in his test career, scoring 1111 points.
Tags: